Wild Energy
by KellyTyler521
Summary: Decimated by a stupid uncooperative floppy disk. I'm never using 'em again, but until I fix this particular problem it's been years already this story's not gonna be anywhere near done.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: The only character I own here is Kelly Alia Tyler; all others are property of MGM and the Sci-Fi channel as far as I know. If anyone knows differently, please correct me soon. The concept of this story is entirely my flaky idea._

"Damned American drivers." I pout as I speed down the highway in my fancy, fully loaded, tricked out metallic silver Doge Viper after getting cut off by some station wagon. "When I turn fifty I'm gonna move back to Australia and take this car with me." I realize that I'm muttering to myself to keep the silence at bay, so I turn on my radio and hit '_search_'. In this particular instance, I am on my way to Cheyenne to meet a colonel with the US Air Force. I see my exit for Cheyenne and I flip on my right indicator before I cut across the necessary lanes to get onto my exit.

An hour later, I am sipping lemonade, waiting for the quietly famous and mysterious Colonel Jack O'Neill as a man - probably forty-eight and six feet tall, with gray hair - comes in scanning the room, and takes the seat across from me.

"Colonel O'Neill?" I guess, keeping my voice low.

"Yeah." He says, looking at me surprised. "Who are you?"

"Kelly Alia Tyler." I say softly. "What precisely is all this about?"

"Depends, what do you know?"

"A lot of things. Narrow it down some."

"Let's see… multi lingual anthropologist with combat and extensive technological experience is who I was sent to pick up. Though I don't think my boss is gonna get all that worked up if I return empty handed."

"Bam, I'm yer girl. My specialties happen to include multiple languages, archeology, offense and defense strategy and execution, and medicine among other things. So what am I being recruited for?"

"Well then. I guess you can find that out when we get there." Colonel O'Neill says as we get up and go out to the parking lot. "Uhh…"

"I'm not leaving my car. I've put too much work into her." I say, as he looks between my spotless Viper and his beat up old Jeep.

"All right, hang on." O'Neill says as I spot another person in his Jeep. He walks over to the Jeep and starts talking to the other person. He is shaking his head as he walks back over to me, having parked at the farthest spot possible in the lot from the door. "All right if I ride with you?"

"Sure, just don't criticize my driving." I say, pressing a button on my key chain to deactivate my security alarm and unlock my doors.

"Okay." He says, as we get into my car. I start my car and head for the nearest gas station. We get that taken care of and I get some snacks since I hadn't actually eaten at the diner, we get back on track and Colonel O'Neill directs me to the Air Force base in Cheyenne Mountain. Security is no problem, nor is parking. Colonel O'Neill leads me through the base to a room, which I was supposed to meet the General. Colonel O'Neill makes the excuse of having business to attend to elsewhere, so he opts not to wait with me. As it turns out, I don't really need anyone to wait with me. A stocky, bald man who's most likely nearly a decade older than the Colonel walks in ten minutes later. Long enough for me to complete an inspection of the interior perimeter of the room, argue with myself as to what I'm doing here, and decide whether or not there's any chance I am going to stay.

"Miss Tyler?" The man asks.

"Kelly Alia Tyler. And you are?" I say, turning to face him fully.

"General George Hammond, US Air Force." He says, as I shake his hand firmly. "Glad you could make it."

"You're just lucky that I wasn't doing anything else at the time. Now, what is all of this about?"

"Well. We heard about your - talents - and thought you might just be interested in being of some assistance."

"Well… how the hell am I supposed to know if I'm interested or not if no one will give me any clue as to what you people do?"

"No one's told you anything?" General Hammond asks apparently amazed.

"Nothing more than my skills in linguistics, archeology, offense, defense, strategy, medicine, etcetera, will come in handy."

"Oh. Well… this is a highly classified US Air Force operation. I've been authorized to let you sit in on a mission briefing and you may accompany any one of our SG teams. I suggest SG-4."

"SG? Is that Si Gamma or something more bizarre?" I say cutting the kind General off and surprising him, as I think of a website I was exploring this morning.

"I suppose you could call it more bizarre. It's also something rather difficult to wrap a new mind around. It was the major find of an archeological dig in Egypt in the late 1920s - "

"Wait, I think I've read about this… Are you talking about the _Stargate_? Forget the explanations. I'm in. Permission to accompany your best team?"

"Now, wait just a minute. What do you know about the Stargate and how?"

"I've just heard some things. I ran across some of the theories set out by Dr. Daniel Jackson, did some research, and set it aside for a while during the time I was hunting down my runaway nephew. My knowledge on the subject is nothing reputable; just that an artifact later named the Stargate was discovered in Egypt. As for my resources… they aren't really special in this instance. A few conspiracy theory websites I found. It's a pastime."

"Researching conspiracy theories is a pastime?"

"Yes and no. I read most of them for laughs, but every once in a blue moon you find something accurate. Satisfactory?"

"Yes. Which team did you want to accompany?" General Hammond says.

"SG-1, if possible."

"Of course. Briefing's at two."

"No reason to use civilian time on my account. I'll be there at oh-thirteen fifty."

"I'll take you to meet SG-1."

"Thank you. Who exactly comprises SG-1, anyway?"

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c."

"Ah." Is all I can manage to say, as we walk out of the room. General Hammond leads me a little deeper into the base as I try to recall ever seeing a picture of Dr. Jackson. _'Oh dear god, what have I got myself into this time? Please let there be someone with a nice smile and a good laugh.'_ I think silently to myself as we walk into a loosely crowded room and head straight for a table occupied by three men - one of whom being Colonel O'Neill - and one young blonde woman.

"General Hammond. Would you care to join us?" The big, bald, dark -skinned man asks, drawing the attention of the other three people at the table to us.

"No, thank you. Could I see all of you in the corridor for a moment?" General Hammond asks.

"Sure." The brunette guy says slowly. They all stand and I follow them as the General leads us out. We walk down the corridor and into what I take to be an empty lounge.

"What's going on?" The woman - whom I take to be Samantha - asks as Colonel O'Neill closes the door.

"I'd like you all to meet Kerry Tyler. She's been recruited to work with the SGC and has requested to work with you. You've all got some time before the briefing, so I suggest you get acquainted with Ms. Tyler. She's a little overqualified so I think she'll fit in just fine. You are all under orders to be on your best behavior for the next thirty-six hours. Understood?" General Hammond says. "Oh, and would one of you make sure she gets down to the infirmary before the briefing?"

"Sure thing." Colonel O'Neill says. General Hammond nods and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.

"Well, uh, let's get through introductions first." The woman says, breaking the nervous silence. "I'm Major Samantha Carter, you can call me Sam." She's about five ten, with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and smooth, fair skin and I decide right then and there that I like her.

"Well, that's rather a relief. My first name's actually Kelly, though."

"This big guy over here is Teal'c." She gestures to the tall, bald man.

"Nice to meet you. I've already met Colonel O'Neill." I say, inclining my head towards O'Neill after shaking hands with Sam.

"And I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson." The tall, broad, blue eyed, brown haired man says, extending a hand for me to shake.

"I've heard of you. I've read some of your work. It's a pleasure to meet you." I say, as we shake hands and it hits me that it seems like he hasn't taken his eyes off of me if he could help it since I walked in the room.

"Oh?"

"Yes, My sister thought I was insane for taking you seriously."

"Oh, well call me Daniel."

"Alright." I say, taking my grin down a few notches and shifting it to another gear.

"So what did General Hammond mean when he said you are overqualified?" Daniel asks, moving a little closer.

"I'm not sure, probably just that."

"So how overqualified are you?" Sam asks.

"I really don't know. From what I've been told I'm just qualified enough."

"So where are you from?" O'Neill asks.

"Australia. Queens land." I respond.

"Oh cool. Ever go diving on the reefs?" Sam asks.

"Oh, you _have_ to go diving on the reefs when you're in Sydney, but the real big deal is to go diving on the reefs and wind up swimming from sharks."

"Whoa." Daniel says, as Sam and Jack just look at me in disbelief.

"Yeah."

"So you're from the outback?" O'Neill asks.

"What do you do?" Daniel asks.

"A lot of things, I was taught a number of different languages, defense and offense techniques, and a few different countries legal systems. I got interested in archeology, medicine, philosophy, and cooking later, so I learned those things as well. So you see, my options have always been very open."

"And that's all?" O'Neill asks sarcastically.

"Not even close, Colonel." I say smiling.

"Jack, please."

"Okay." I say, ignoring his snide tone. "I also picked up mechanics, and a few stealth techniques. Fifteen siblings, I'm a born negotiator, too."

"Fifteen siblings? One to sixteen, what number are you?" Sam asks completely astonished.

"Six. I have four older brothers, an older sister, a younger brother, and nine younger sisters."

"How many step parents?" Daniel asks quietly as if he hadn't really meant to interrupt.

"None."

"Can you name all of your siblings?"

"Sure, want me to?" I say, smiling as Daniel, Sam, and Jack nod for me to go ahead. "David, Scott, Richard, Johnathan, Angela, Tomas, Juliette, Carol, Malinda, Lilli, Deanna, Dax, Dae, Katherine, and Armedia. Anything else?"

"Not really." Sam says.

"No." Jack says begrudgingly.

"Uh, actually, yeah." Daniel says uncertainly seeming to lose a measure of his nerve. "It's nearly noon, Dr. Fraiser's probably waiting for you."

"That's true…" I say as I catch Sam throwing Jack Daniel a suspicious glance out of the corner of my eye.

"Why don't I just take you down there myself?" Daniel offers.

"Sure." I say, smiling a little as I see right through to his intentions.

"See you later, Kelly." Jack says, as Daniel and I head for the door.

"Back in a little while Jack." Daniel calls over his shoulder before closing the door behind us.

We walk down the corridor quietly for a little while covertly examining each other before coming to an elevator. Daniel presses the call button and we wait.

"I hope you don't think I'm being too forward or anything, but I have to admit something." I say as the elevator doors open in front of us my thick and quickly returning accent, mixed with my apprehension making my voice barely understandable to anyone but another linguist. It's already empty, so we step on.

"What's that?"

"You're much more handsome than I imagined."

"Oh… that's, uh… that's - "

"Totally inappropriate, something every girl says, very sweet, but incredibly bad timing on part of the universe, what?"

"Flattering." Daniel says with a smile and a slight good-natured laugh.

"Oh. Good, just as it was meant." I say smiling. Daniel presses a button and almost immediately we start going down.

"So what do you do for fun?"

"Depends on what's available. I do tend to read a lot, I like to open up my car sometimes, and I occasionally write fiction, but besides that, there's always music."

"Oh. Well, would you like to go to dinner sometime? Perhaps we could open up your car on the way."

"I'd like that." I say as the elevator doors open onto our floor. Daniel and I go "all business" as we walk the corridors to Doctor Fraiser's infirmary.

"Hello Daniel." A short, brunette woman just slightly taller than me says as he and I walk up to her.

"Doctor Janet Fraiser, this is Kelly Tyler."

"Nice to meet you Kelly." Dr. Fraiser says as we shake hands.

"Likewise Doctor. Anyway, I'm supposed to get poked, scanned, and stuck before the brief." I say.

"I'll just wait over there." Daniel says pointing to some chairs that probably is supposed to be the waiting area.

"Yeah, right this way, I just have a few questions for you while you get undressed."

"All right." I say, tossing Daniel one last smile as I follow Dr. Fraiser into the exam room.

"Full name?"

"Kelly Alia Tyler." I say. "A-L-I-A." I add as an afterthought.

"All right, date of birth?"

"May twenty first, nineteen seventy-one."

"Makes you twenty-seven, correct?" Dr. Fraiser asks, I nod in response. "Kelly, aren't you for - "

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot I was supposed to be changing. My mind must have been other places." I say, adding in the back of my mind, "filthy, naughty places", and I pull the curtain and begin to strip.

"That's quite all right. Where were you born?"

"Ayr, Australia." I say, looking for a robe in my skivvies. "Where are the gowns?"

"Top left hand drawer on the patient's right hand side of the bed. How long have you been a US citizen?"

"Fourteen years. Moved to LA when I was thirteen."

"Are you allergic to any medications?"

"No, my only allergy is to large amounts of dust." I say, pulling a gown out of the drawer.

"Okay, any previous medical history?"

"Just the normal; chicken pox when I was four, maybe a cold every few years. No family medical history, either."

"All right, good. When was your last checkup?"

"Eight months ago."

"Ever been pregnant?"

"No"

"Drugs?"

"Only Ortho Tri-cycline." I say, pulling back the curtain after tying the gown I'd slipped into. "I drink occasionally, though."

"Okay, there are a few questions left, but you can fill those out yourself later."

"All right"

"Right now I just need you to step onto this scale over here." Dr. Fraiser says, and I walk over and I walk over and step onto the scale. "Stand up straight, please." I follow that direction, too, and she adjusts the scale, records my weight, and takes my height.

"So?"

"Five two, one twenty. That's good." Dr. Fraiser says, as I step off the scale. "How 'bout hopping up onto this exam table?"

"Sure." I say, padding over to the table.

"I've got to take a blood sample, so I need to know if you have a problem with needles?"

"No real problem, but don't go nuts." I say. "Dr. Fraiser, could I ask you something about SG-1?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Do you know why they would need another member?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I still don't know why I was recruited and given my choice of teams to go with. It's not like they don't have people to do what I do."

"Well, what do you do?" Dr. Fraiser asks, after listening to my heart and lungs. "When was your last trip to the gynecologist?"

"Last month." I say. "I do a lot of things, really, I was a registered nurse in Chicago, a bodyguard in Los Angeles, a linguist in Greece, and I've been a million other things, including an archeologist and an attorney. I honestly thought that the military already had people to do whatever I was in to do."

"Well, chances are that General Hammond heard of you and your talents somehow and decided to recruit you and see what you can _really_ do."

"Hmmm… I hadn't really considered that since I don't really think I'm really that well known."

"Well, neither are we."

"Good point."

"All done. Stand up. Look straight ahead at the chart. Cover your left eye and read the seventh line of the chart."

"_F, E, L, O, P, E, D_."

"Alright, the next line down?"

"_L, E, F, O, D, P, C, T_."

"Good. Now I want you to read the same two lines covering only your right eye." I comply to the direction fully with hardly a thought. Instead, I have most of my mind focused on what I could possibly add to SG-1. Daniel is one of the best archeologists and linguists I've ever heard of, and much more experienced than me. Jack seems to be the leader of the group, not something that I particularly enjoy doing since I'm usually much more for just throwing in my own two cents. Sam seems to be the science and technology expert, so I assume I wasn't brought in to aid her since science requires more mathematical skills than I like to display. Teal'c, though, I have no idea what to make of him since he hasn't said one word to me so far. At least I won't get anyone confused, though. I run through the mental snapshots of them as Dr. Fraiser checks out my eyes and reflexes. Teal'c is a tall, muscular, dark skinned, bald man with a tattoo inlaid with gold on his forehead, and he appears to be around thirty-five, though I'm sure he's older. Jack is a shorter - six foot compared to nearly six and a half feet - man with steely gray hair, dark eyes, and a light tan. Samantha is a five foot eight, lean, light skinned woman with short, thick, blonde hair and big, blue eyes. Daniel, though… first word that comes to mind when I look at him is "do-able". Daniel is about six foot two, muscular, kind of pale, with blue eyes, brown hair, and wired framed glasses.

"Are you feeling all right?" Dr. Fraiser asks, as I refocus on her.

"Yes, just thinking. Why?"

"Just seemed like you were a million miles away." She says, sounding concerned. "We're almost done here, anyway. You can get dressed and fill out the rest of that form. I'm just going to get the drug tests."

"All right, can I borrow a pen?" I say, as Dr. Fraiser stands up. She hands me my chart and a pen before she leaves the room. I take off the gown and put on my skirt and stockings, then someone knocks on the door. "Come in." I call, heading for the curtain while turning to see whom it is.

"Ches' I - " Daniel starts, coming in and quickly closing the door just before I could pull the stubborn or jammed curtain, facing him. "Oh, I'm - I, I - uh… I shou-"

"Daniel, what is it?" I say, deciding to forget the jammed, useless curtain and, taking the embarrassment in stride. It's not like I'm not in shape, after all.

"Oh, uh… I was just curious as to, uh, what you drive."

"You don't remember your original question, do you?" I ask, clearly amused as I put on my shirt.

"Uh, no. How could you tell?" Daniel says as I tuck my shirt in.

"No offense, but you just don't seem like the car guy type." I say, pulling on my jacket. "Hey, don't worry about just now. I was the one caught topless."

"Oh, well all right." Daniel says, as I realize he's been staring at me for a little while as I slide my shoes on. "So what do you drive?"

"A silver Doge Viper. You alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"All right." I say uncertainly. "Anything else?"

"Uh… no, I don't think so. I'm just going to sit down and try to recall that first question."

"Okay, I'm just gonna finish filling out this form." I leave him to his own devices as he leaves me to mine. I complete the form and Dr. Fraiser returns and gives me a little cup and directions to the ladies' room. I take the drug test, give the cup to the nurse at the desk, and return to the room. Dr. Fraiser draws some of my blood, sends it to the lab and tells me - basically - to get lost, so Daniel offers to take me to lunch, which I gladly accept.

"So did you ever remember that question?" I ask as we take the elevator up.

"Yeah, I was curious as to how many languages you're fluent in?" Daniel asks.

"Well, hmm… there's Italian, Greek, Maori, French, Egyptian, Hindu, and Russian, as far as languages I'm _fluent_ in. I speak more."

"How many more?"

"Exactly a lot." I say, jokingly, smiling. "Name a couple you speak, I'll tell you whether I know them or not."

"All right, uh… Turkish?"

"Yeah."

"German?"

"Yeah." I say, as the elevator doors open on our floor and we walk out.

"Scandinavian?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Spanish?"

"No. Only enough to get me through downtown L.A., but I do speak Dutch."

"So you're a serious linguist?"

"Kind of. I'm not really a serious anything." I say, with a small smile and a shrug.

"Oh, so what were you doing before you got this call?"

"I was actually being fired for mouthing off when the call came in."

"Oh. I'm almost afraid to ask what you were being fired from."

"I was a nurse at a Los Angeles hospital." I say as we enter a cafeteria. "Before that I worked in a restaurant in Seattle."

"Oh, so you know food." Daniel says, as we get in line.

"Yeah, but I'm not picky." I say, taking a banana after Daniel hands me a tray. "So what about you? What else do you do?"

"Ah, not much, actually. It really depends on what's around. Like you, I read a lot. Part of my job is translations, despite that, I work on those a lot in my free time." Daniel says taking a sandwich.

"Ah, a man that likes a challenge. I can relate."

"Oh?" He says, as I look through and decide to take an egg salad sandwich.

"Yes, although I really think I'm more of a thrill seeker."

"You're kidding. What kind of thrill seeker?" Daniel asks, as he grabs two cups for coffee.

"Nothing too wild from my point of view. Roller coasters, rock climbing, bungee jumping, those are my big things."

"Bungee jumping? Have you ever gotten hurt?" He asks, paying the cashier for our food.

"No, not yet. My little brother is the truly insane one, though. He's a skydiver."

"So it runs in the family." Daniel says, looking for an empty table so that we can sit down and eat.

"Yeah." I say, as Daniel finds an empty table off in a corner and leads me towards it. "It's rather strange, but my dad was always the one to take us on the roller coasters, and my mom taught us how to fight."

"How is that strange?" Daniel asks unwrapping his sandwich after we sat down.

"Well, when I was growing up everyone I knew had the working dad and stay at home mom, very stereotypical, I know, but it only made me realize how exciting my parents make my life." I say, unwrapping my sandwich as he takes a bite of his. "So here I am, yammering on about my family, and I don't know anything about you. So. How 'bout telling me about yourself?"

"Well, I don't know. My life really isn't that interesting." He says after swallowing.

"That's the same attitude I hold towards mine. Why not tell me anyway, little heads up as to what to avoid altogether and what to get out in the open now-ish?" I say, before taking a bite of my sandwich.

"Well, ah… I'm from upstate New York, my parents were archeologists, and the most exciting thing I'd done before joining SG-1 was holding a seminar to present my theories. I started out with a full house, finished with one person."

"Ooo." I say, after swallowing. "Been there. Any siblings?"

"No, fortunately not."

"Do you wanna tell me why that's fortunate?" I ask, eating at my sandwich as he hesitates. "I know everyone says sibs are a giant pain in the ass, but it's always interested me when other people say it. Even though I've said the same on occasion."

"That's…" He says, swallowing hard, appearing very reflective. "That's fortunate because any siblings I might have had would have had to go through with my parents what I went through."

"Oh kay. I'm not sure I understand that, but I'm not sure I'm supposed to. We'll leave it if you want."

"Thanks." Daniel says, staring at his food for a minute before eating at it again. I shrug mentally and finished my sandwich.

"So, uh, who do you like to read?" I ask drinking my coffee.

"Oh, uh, you know, Weaver, Guevara, Stringfield. Their views and theories are really interesting."

"Yeah, well, I'm more into the authors that almost belong in an asylum. You know, the ones that write of vampires, and witches, and spirits and such."

"Ah, so you read for fun, not information." Daniel says after finishing his sandwich.

"Most of the time." I say, taking a swallow of my coffee.

"Umm… General Hammond probably has a confidentiality contract for you to sign, we should probably go see him soon."

"'Soon' as in 'forget the coffee' or 'soon' as in 'after the ten cent tour'?" I ask, mildly disappointed at the prospect of returning to business so soon.

"Ahh…" He says, checking his watch. "The former, I'm afraid." He half smiles at me as I take another deep swallow as if I had all the time in the world. I cast a glance at him and set the coffee cup down on the tray.

"All right, what's the deal around here?"

"Just leave it." Daniel says, as he and I stand up.

"About this contract, now is it"

"I don't really know anything about contracts, Kelly." Daniel informs me as we walk out of the cafeteria.

"Oh, all right. I'll deal later."

"Daniel, Kelly, wait up!" Sam calls from behind us. He and I stop in our tracks and turn to wait for Sam to catch up.

"Hey Sam."

"What's up?" Daniel asks.

"Hammond moved up the brief. Kelly, you've been officially cleared, all you've gotta do now is sign the confidentiality contract. Everyone else is waiting in the briefing room, let's go." Sam says, after catching up.

"Why'd he move everything up?" I ask as we turn around, presumably heading for the briefing room.

"I'm not sure." Sam says, as she pushes the elevator button. The doors open, four apparent soldiers get off, and we get on. Samantha, Daniel and I ride the elevator up a couple of floors silently, I use the time to think about what terms that might be in the contract I will agree to. I decide that I'll agree to anything, since money doesn't really matter, as long as I can leave if I ever decide to settle down. My mind just kinda wanders from there. The doors open and Sam leads us down the corridor a little and then into the briefing room, where General Hammond, Jack, and Teal'c are waiting for us.

"Let's get right down to business, shall we? Oh, Ms. Tyler, you just need to sign this." General Hammond says, after Sam, Daniel, and I come in and sit down. Sam was across from Jack, who was beside Teal'c, and Daniel was between Sam and I.

"All right, can I look it over, or do we have no time?" I ask as General Hammond looks around for something.

"Sure, we have a few minutes." Jack says.

"Good. Would someone hand it to me, please?" I say and Teal'c - rather surprisingly - slides it over to me. "Thank you."

"You are welcome, Kelly." Teal'c says, I nod and start looking over the contract. I don't read every word, but I quickly discover that there's nothing in the contract that I would find unreasonable. I do some double-checking through the fine print especially as Sam and Jack make small talk.

"Daniel, do you have a pen I could borrow?" I ask quietly.

"You're in then?" Daniel asks, handing me the pen.

"Yeah." I say signing by the x 'Kelly Alia Tyler'. "So what are we doing?" I ask a bit louder.

"You've signed the contract?" General Hammond asks.

"Yes." I say, biting back a few rather choice phrases that suddenly float into my mind.

"Good. SG-1 has been given a mission to go to P-5649. It was supposed to be a routine mission until the probe was disconnected. The last image recorded - was this." General Hammond says, clicking on a large monitor displaying the image of a bipedal, presumably human male, wearing armor and some sort of retractable snake-head helmet, both made of some kind of metal, holding a large staff-like weapon with the business end aimed at the camera.

"Oh, crap." Jack says as Daniel's jaw drops open. I admire his visage from this angle for a second and turn my sight back to the monitor.

"Okay, not good, but someone fill in the new girl" I say, realizing that I'm dressed totally inappropriately. 'Damn, I should have worn my jeans and boots' I think, frowning.

"That's a Jaffa. They're a race of hosts that serve the Gao'uld who are intent on either destroying or subjugating the entire Human race." Daniel explains quickly.

"Ah. How long have we been fighting them?" I ask.

"Well, we can't really declare open war, but we've been battling with them for about a year or so now." Sam says.

"Well, then. I certainly am dressed inappropriately for this, -- General Hammond, what else do we need to know?" I say, slightly perturbed and not hiding it well.

"Uh, just proceed with extreme caution and don't kill anyone that isn't shooting at you. Major Carter will fill you in on standard procedure and special protocols later." General Hammond says.

"Yes sir." Sam says, as Daniel squirms slightly in his chair.

"Do we have any indication as to why they're here?" Teal'c asks.

"No." General Hammond says.

"Might be a stupid question, but is this place populated by anything other than Jaffa?" I ask.

"We don't know." General Hammond says simply.

"Ah." I say, silently reviewing the information I've been given - which sums up to Jaffa serve Gao'uld, Gao'uld bad, we're fighting the bad.

"Dismissed." General Hammond says.

"Kelly?" Sam says, as everyone stands up and heads out, she touches my arm as I turn to go.

"Yeah?"

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, just thinking. Ah, could you show me where I could get something to change into?"

"Sure, right this way." Sam says, leading me off . "So, how are you handling all of this?"

"Eh. I always suspected there was something - off, with the way ancient history was recorded. Besides, you spend three years in a Chicago emergency room, and see how much surprises you after that."

"Were you a doctor or a nurse?"

"Nurse. Law school kind of impeded med school."

"Law school, really?"

"Yeah, and what's worse is that my family did so much traveling that I became an international attorney." I say, as I follow her through a door. "I never could stay in one place for more than five years."

"I take it you want that to change."

"Yes and no. I wouldn't get upset if it did, but I'd most likely be able to deal with it if nothing changes."

"I can relate." Sam says, as I notice the shelves of clothing and stacks of shoeboxes. "What size are you?"

"Medium." I say, not too thrilled with the prospect of wearing the same outfit for weeks. Suddenly I was very glad that I had clothes in my car. "I don't suppose we have time to go get something from my car." I say, smirking. Sam just smiles at me as she hands me a black t-shirt.

We find green cargo pants and combat boots for me and I go to change my clothes as Sam tries to find a jacket and brush for me. "Sam, can I ask you something?" I ask, after removing my civilian garb and putting on the fatigues I am supplied.

"Sure, what?"

"What is the deal with Teal'c? I don't mean any offense, I just don't know what to make of him." I say, putting on my boots - well, that is, the combat boots I was given.

"He _does_ take a little getting used to. He's just not very expressive."

"Ah. Kinda seems like he has a permanent wedgie." I say, coming out of the dressing room. "So what were you doing before the SGC?"

"I'm in the Air Force." Sam says, handing me a hairbrush. "You?"

"It's very strange: I open my mouth to tell my boss what I really thought of her as I was being fired and my cell phone rings."

"Why were you being fired?" Sam asks, as I brush my hair back into a ponytail.

"I was a nurse in an LA emergency room and I mouthed off too much, too often and at the wrong people, but damned if it didn't feel good."

"Really."

"I don't think anyone around here has to worry, though, back there the chief of staff, chief of surgery, and three of the ER attendings were full of themselves, and they treated their subordinates like crap. Residents and Nurses were transferring or quitting left and right, but I liked my job."

"Oh." Sam says, handing me a jacket and a backpack. "Everything's already in there. We still need to swing by the armory, so let's get going. What's that?"

"Huh? What?" I ask, Sam reaches around behind me and pulls my ten-inch knife from its scabbard tucked into the back of my pants. "Oh, that. I have a license for that. I carry it instead of a gun."

"What? How'd you - "

"I told security about it and produced proof that I had a license for it on my way in. Is that a problem?"

"Not with me. C'mon, let's go." Sam says, leading me out of the room to the armory where Jack, Daniel, and Teal'c are waiting for us.

"Hey Kelly." Daniel says, going straight for the semi-automatic as Jack goes for an automatic assault rifle.

"Hey." I say, turning towards him.

"Could you use one of these, Kelly?" Jack asks handing me a P-90.

"Yea, I can, I just don't especially like them." I say, measuring the weight of the gun and handing it back.

"Why not?" Daniel asks.

"Too unpredictable for me."

"So you're going unarmed?" Daniel asks, and I have to wonder if it's concern for my ability to protect myself, or if it's just some weird guy thing that's got him sounding sincerely worried.

"No, I'm taking my knife." I say neutrally.

"What do you think a knife will do against a Jaffa soldier?" Jack asks.

"You make it sound as if I'm dependant on a pocket knife!" I laugh.

"Well, aren't you?" Daniel asks.

"You want me to show you?" I purr, a little more amused, but no longer laughing.

"It really is a nice knife." Sam says, as Daniel puts his gun in a holster and Jack slings his sidearm over his shoulder.

"Okay, but no demonstrations." Jack says, and I slip my hand behind my back, pull my knife out of its sheath, and flip it over in my hand. The knife is remarkable. Mundane black hilt, then two double edged stainless steel titanium blades. Both blades are curved, but one is shorter and more curved than the other to give it smooth lines for a fluid cut. "Whoa."

"You know how to use that?" Daniel asks uneasily, his eyes completely focused on the knife.

"Yeah, I won't touch a weapon I don't know how to use." I say, carefully putting my blade away.

"Good. Are we ready to go?" Jack says obviously annoyed with me.

"As far as I'm concerned." I say. Teal'c opens the door and he, Jack, Sam, Daniel, and I walk out into the corridor, Daniel and I taking up the rear.

"How long have you carried a knife?" Daniel asks softly keeping his distance, but only a little.

"I've carried that knife for eleven years." I respond, just as quietly.

"Since you were… "

"Sixteen. The year before that my best friend was nearly killed five times. My mom gave me the knife and taught me to use it for my birthday."

"Wow." Daniel says, under his breath.

"What?" I ask quietly almost in a whisper.

"You're twenty-seven."

"Yeah, and?" I say softly, smiling a little as he comes closer and visibly relaxes.

"I just thought you were younger." Daniel says, as we come to a set of double doors. Jack, Sam, Teal'c, and Daniel all look at me as we come to a stop just outside of them.

"You ready?" Jack asks tonelessly.

"Let's rock." I say, smiling, remembering where I got that phrase.

Teal'c leads us through the doors, with me still bringing up the rear. The room we enter is absolutely gigantic. It obviously housed the huge, metal ring I immediately recognized as the Stargate by the inscriptions on it. The Stargate was stood up vertically with a ramp of metal grating leading into the center of the lower portion.

"Surprised yet?" Samantha asks me quietly, I laugh a little just before alarms and sirens start going off.

"Chevron five - engaged." A woman's voice says. I notice that five out of twelve lights are lit, and that the inner ring on the Stargate is rotating as everyone checks their packs once more. "Chevron six - engaged."

"Think you're ready for this don't you?" Jack asks.

"No, but I know I can handle anything." I answer putting as much superiority into my voice as he had in his.

"Chevron seven - engaged."

"Tylers don't die nicely." I whisper softly to myself closing my eyes for the moment.

"What?" Daniel asks.

"Just something I tell myself before I get on a plane." I say a bit more cheerfully, though not nearly enough to mask my nervousness.

"This is nothing like getting on a plane." Daniel says smiling a little.

"Chevron seven - engaged." There's a flash of light and what looks like a horizontal cold-water geyser. Another flash as the vortex retracts, and the center of the 'gate appears as a serene pool.

"Be alert." Jack says, just before he and Teal'c walk up the ramp and into the Stargate. Sam throws me a glance as she follows them, and Daniel escorts me up the ramp as Sam walks through the 'gate.

"Just like stepping on a boat." Daniel mutters beside me, as we step through the 'gate. Before I could think to blink I am standing outside in a fairly warm, wooded area.


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, my parents were right, and my sister was wrong. This has been a good day." I say, after it was determined that there were no immediate threats in the vicinity, as I'm having a look around the glade we arrived in. There's a small pedestal Daniel tells me is what they call a 'dial home device', and a path leading to what I think is the West.

"How were your parents right?" Daniel asks.

"And how is that a _good_ thing?" Jack adds.

"My parents always said Tylers don't die easily." I say, inspecting a tree with a suspicious scorch mark on it.

"What kind of screwed up thing is that to tell a kid?!" Jack cries apparently absolutely appalled at the prospect of talking to kids about death.

"The kind of thing you tell 'em when you want 'em to be prepared to do anything. At least that's what my uncle said." I say as honestly as humanly possible.

"Oh." Jack says.

"So are we going after that Jaffa or what?" I ask.

"We'll keep an eye out, but we're basically looking for signs of civilization." Daniel says still focusing on looking for things connected to people.

"Ah. Better plan than mine. So which way?" I say.

"You're a little impatient, aren't you?" Sam says, as she and Daniel continue surveying the area.

"Excited, really. Impatience is just a product of that." I say, catching sight of something just as out of the ordinary as the scorch mark. "Hey anyone notice this?" I walk over to the tree with a burn and tug at what appears to be a slippered foot hanging from a low branch.

"Uhh, no. What?" Daniel asks, as I look up to see if there is anyone attached to the small foot. There was, and she was a little blonde - apparently human - blue-eyed girl, no older than seven years old.

"Hello." I say, as Daniel, Sam, and Jack walk over to me . "My name's Kelly. What's you're name?"

"Landra." She says softly, still sort of trying to hide behind her branch.

"Landra. That's a pretty name. Do you want some help getting down?" I say, Landra nods. I consider the situation for a second and decided how to get her down. "Okay, just hang on." I say, taking off my pack.

"Kelly, how - " Sam starts to ask.

"You'll see." I say, as I rub my palms together. I jump up, grab onto the base of a branch, and swing myself up. I pick up Landra and turn her towards me. "Hang on to my neck, all right." She wraps her arms around my neck I shield her head with my chin, set my grip, and, since I had been straddling the branch, swing one leg to the other side, the rest of my body following. I drop to the ground and set the girl down. "Are you all right?"

"Yes." Landra says.

"Were you out here all alone?" I ask thinking carefully about what to say to get any useful information out of her without traumatizing her.

"No, my Momma and I were picking fruit."

"Oh." I say, considering the possibilities of where her mom could be.

"Can you take me home? My Daddy says I shouldn't be out here alone." Landra says sweetly.

"Let me talk with my friends and I think we'll go." I say, Landra nods and I turn towards the others. "Well?"

"The girl - " Jack starts.

"Landra." I interrupt him.

"Landra leads." Jack says, I nod and turn back to Landra.

"Landra, these are my friends. This is Jack," I say, Jack nods towards her, "and Samantha."

"Hi." Sam says, with a small wave and a smile.

"That's Teal'c, and Daniel."

"Hello, Landra." Daniel says, as Teal'c is about as readable as a statue.

"Hi." Landra says shyly.

"Can you take us back to your home?" Sam asks, as I put my pack back on.

"Yes." Landra says, reaching out a hand, which Sam took. "This way."

We walk out of the clearing heading - by my best guess - West, Sam and Landra leading with Jack and Teal'c following closely behind and Daniel and I taking up the rear.

"That was pretty cool." Daniel says, after a few minutes, causing me to look up at him and think about precisely what he meant. "The way you got Landra down."

"Really?" I ask, considering it a moment. "Hmph. Then you should see me scale a wall."

"Climbed a lot of trees as a kid?" He says, half-smiling as he brushed his knuckles on my bare arm, sending shivers all through my shoulders and my back.

"Not really, but my high school had a gymnastics team." I say, playing with his hand.

"Ah." Daniel says, as Jack slows down to walk beside us.

"Kelly, could I talk to you a second?" Jack asks coldly.

"I'm gonna go talk to Teal'c." Daniel says quickening his pace a little, obviously taking the cues he's learned from knowing Jack for so long.

"What do you know about him?" Jack asks in ice-cold interrogation style, as soon as Daniel was out of earshot.

"Not much."

"What have you told him of yourself?"

"The honest answer to every question he's asked me. Why do you ask?"

"Because I don't know you, but I know you're dangerous. Because Daniel's my friend."

"Then he has a good friend, but I don't have any intention of hurting Daniel or any of you in any way. Believe me or not, it's the true."

"I'll choose to believe you." Jack says lightening up a little for that moment. "For now." He hurries ahead of me to walk with Daniel and I walked ahead to walk with Landra.

"So, Landra, who is at home." Sam asks, after a little while.

"Just Mommy, Daddy, and Moke and me. We live in town so it really isn't that strange to have travelers around." Landra says quietly.

"Is Moke your brother?" Sam asks.

"Yes." Landra says. We walk a little further and come to a set of large apparently formidable gates. A middle-aged man in metal armor walks through the gates towards us.

"Stop where you are and release the child!" The man calls, Landra had been holding Sam's hand, but promptly let go when the guard had told Sam to let her go. "Landra! What have these people done with your mother?"

"They didn't do anything with her, Pali. Some Bad Men hurt her and took her away. My momma put me in a tree. Kelly got me down." Landra says, still standing with us.

"Who?"

"Excuse me. I am Kelly Tyler. These are my friends, Samantha Carter, Jack O'Neill, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c. We mean no harm, we are simply travelers." I say, and then I look to Jack to see if he approved, which - by the look on his face that appeared to be 'oh, great, now he's gonna shoot us' - I don't think I get.

"Travelers? You're just looking for lodging then?"

"Actually, our main purpose was to make sure that Landra got home all right." Jack says, quickly. "Lodging was a secondary priority."

"Ah, then I'll let you pass, and suggest the White Flame Inn. Welcome to Evermoon."

"Thanks." Jack says as we start forward.

"This way." Landra says cheerfully, leading us off again. We follow her through the city and never take our eyes off of our surroundings. Through out the trip people were trying to sell things and just do their business. A few minutes later, Landra leads us up to a house with a low barn and a fence.

"Come on in, I'll get Daddy." Landra says, leading us through the gate.

"Alright." I say, we lag behind as she runs ahead into the house. She comes back out very quickly dragging a guy by the wrist.

"Daddy, this is Kelly, and her friends Daniel, Samantha, Jack, and Teal'c. Kelly got me out of the tree Momma put me in before the Bad Men took her." Landra says, walking back up to us, still tugging on her father's wrist.

"Oh?" Landra's father says, looking at me suspiciously. "I am Cale, and I thank you for saving my daughter and bringing her home. I am in your debt."

"You're welcome, but that isn't necessary. I'm just glad Landra isn't still in the tree." I say.

"Why's that?" Cale asks, picking up Landra and holding her.

"She led us to the city. I have a suspicion that if we hadn't found her, we'd still be walking around the woods."

"Ah, I see. Well, at least let me offer you and your friends a meal." Cale says, I look to Jack and he gestures for me to accept.

"Looks like we'll accept your offer." I say.

"Good, Landra, go get your brother. Come. Let's go inside." Cale says, leading the five of us into the house as Landra hits the ground and runs to get her brother. "It's not much, but make yourselves comfortable."

"Thank you." Daniel says, as Sam and I smile before I could stay the same.

Read from here.

"Anyone else think he's gonna ask us to go find Landra's mother?" I ask quietly after most of us had been seated in the living room, a little while after Cale had gone into the kitchen.

"Occurred to me." Daniel says, quietly.

"Seems logical enough." Sam says, following suit and keeping her voice relatively low.

"Oh of course." Jack says sarcastically.

"So are we gonna give it a shot?" I ask, looking around.

"Do we have a reason not to?" Sam asks.

"Yes, that is precisely our mission here. Find missing children and save _kittens_." Jack says sarcastically.

"Actually, isn't it in our manifesto to provide humanitarian aid when requested?" Daniel says.

"I knew that was gonna come back and bite me in the ass" Jack says.

"Great. I'm gonna shut up so someone else cant take over. Deal?" I day, not looking at anyone in particular.

"Deal." Daniel after Jack and Sam both look to him. Just then, a young man - maybe seventeen - comes in carrying Landra on his shoulders, Landra laughing happily.

"Moke, go wash." Cale says, walking out from the kitchen.

"Yes, father." Moke says, taking Landra off of his shoulders and putting her down.

"The food shall be along shortly." Cale says easily.

"You're staying then?" Landra asks.

"For a little while, yes." Daniel says, as I look to him.

"Landra, where's the hand towel?" Moke calls, walking back into the room. "Oh, I didn't know we had guests."

"Hello. I'm Daniel Jackson, this is Kelly Tyler, Jack O'Neill, Samantha Carter, and Teal'c."

"Hello." I say.

"Oh, so you are the friends Landra met in the woods. I'm her older brother Moke."

"Nice to meet you." Daniel says.

"Likewise. Uh…" Moke says, looking down at his still wet hands. He runs into the kitchen for a second and emerges drying his hands on a towel. "Are you all staying for dinner?"

"Uh, yeah." Daniel says, as Moke shakes his hand.

"You're in for a real treat, then. My father is the finest cook in the entire province." Moke says proudly.

"Moke! You used up the last of the water in the washroom!" Landra calls from the washroom.

"Excuse me." Moke says, heading for the washroom.

"Okay, I gotta say it; these people just seem too comfortable considering that Landra's mother is missing." Jack says quietly.

"Agreed." I say, as Cale comes out from the kitchen with some plates and silverware.

"Landra set the table, please." Cale calls, setting the dinnerware on the table. "I believe we have some things to discuss." He says to us, motioning for us to come into another room.

"Oh? All right." Jack says, as we all stand and head to the door he indicated. We walk into a study and wait for Cale to start. I look around as Jack and Teal'c survey Cale. I recognize Scrolls, scroll cubbies, and paintings, there's some furniture, but nothing really extravagant.

"You've heard Landra's story, no doubt." Cale says, and a few of us nod. "Who she calls 'Bad Men' are who we call 'Snake Warriors'. The city Pali have been fighting them off, but barely. The Pali have recovered most people who had been abducted by the snake Warriors, but I don't think they will go after my wife, Merrique."

"Why?" Daniel asks, as I walk around to stand off to the side between Cale and Daniel.

"Merrique was a Din'Ival," Cale says. "She used herbs and potions to cure people of their illnesses and make charms for a merchant's prosperity, or bountiful harvest." He explains, seeing the blank expressions on our faces.

"Oh." Daniel says still not fully comprehending.

"A witch." I whisper softly to him, and he nods as it clicks into place.

"It was only a matter of time before they tried to kill her. If you could return her to me, I could pick up the kids and get out of town." Cale says, as Jack and I visibly relax - but not much.

"If we had any help finding the base of the Snake Warriors we would at least give it a shot," Jack says.

"Moke can take you! Will you really try?" Cale says thoughtfully.

Jack looks to everyone for opinions. Sam nods, Daniel and I just look at him as if the say 'you can guess our opinions' - Daniel standing with his arms crossed over his chest, me with my thumbs hooked in my belt loops on my hips - and Teal'c simply raises an eyebrow. "Yes, we will try to recover your wife while trying not to get your son killed." Jack says rather resignedly.

"Thank you so much. Is there anything you'll need? It is a three-day journey." Cale says, as I catch a scent of something meat-like.

"Beyond food and water? No." Jack says, apparently back to his usual sarcastic, laid back self.

"At least let me buy some extra equipment. Not that yours doesn't appear as sturdy as anything I could offer." Cale says, going over to a desk near a wall.

I glance around the room to get a feeling of everyone else's opinion. Sam is glancing around uneasily while Jack appeared surprised and Daniel and Teal'c look completely indifferent. "Well, we don't want to put you through any trouble." I say diplomatically.

"Oh, it's no trouble. We can discuss this in more detail later. Now, I believe dinner is ready." Cale says, going back over to the door. We all exit the room and take seats at the table Moke and Landra had set as Cale goes into the kitchen to bring out the meal. I sit next to Landra, who is to the right of the head of the table, Moke to the left across from her. On my other side are Daniel and Teal'c, Daniel being directly next to me. Across from me are Sam and Jack and I notice that whenever possible they choose to be next to each other.

"This really is a lovely home." I say doing my best impression of my mother being nice, as Cale comes back into the room and sets a few side dishes on the table.

"Thank you." Cale says, as Moke rises from his seat and goes into the kitchen. Moke returns with what looks like a large roast beast, which almost immediately puts bits and pieces of 'The Grinch Who Stole Christmas' floating around in my head. It is apparent custom that the host or head of the family serves everyone him-or-her-self. So as everyone is served everyone else makes small talk. Occasionally my left hand slips from my lap and - since we are on benches - taps against Daniel's thigh, and so about the fifteenth time this happens he casually reaches down and gently squeezes my hand, very quickly, laying it down on the bench between us.

After the meal, it is apparently very late, even though my watch only puts us at seven-thirty, Jack and Daniel follow Cale into the study to discuss the details of the task ahead. Sam and I are given some money for two rooms and sent to procure them at the White Flame Inn. We thank him profusely and Sam, Teal'c and I depart after Landra is put to bed. We have little trouble finding the inn and when we do, I arrange for two rooms directly across from each another. I pay the innkeeper and he shows us to our rooms.

"These 're it. Enjoy yer stay." The innkeeper says, taking the keys out of the doors and handing one to Sam and one to Teal'c.

"Thank you." Sam says, as the innkeeper walks off down the hall.

"I'm going to wait for Jack and Daniel downstairs." I say, as they unlock the doors.

"Are you going to be all right by yourself?" Sam asks, as I take off my pack.

"Sure. I know how to handle myself in a bar." I say, as Teal'c - unexpectedly - takes my pack.

"Okay. See you later." Sam says hesitantly, going into the room on my left - the room without the window - as Teal'c goes into the room on my right - the one with the window. I go back down the hall the way I came.

I plant myself close to the wall opposite the door to watch for Daniel and Jack without anyone bothering me. Nonetheless, a few minutes after I sit down, I feel something brush by my leg. My hand shoots down from the tabletop, nails bared, to catch the foreign object near my hip.

"Hey!" A high-pitched man squeaks, as I dig my nails into his wrist. I look down and a small man with long, curly black hair and big toffee colored eyes is staring up at me. "P-p-p-please don't hurt me?" He squeaks.

_'A dwarf, maybe? No. No, perhaps a halfling.'_ I think silently. "Why in the world would I do that? Who are you and why were you trying to steal from me?" I ask quietly.

"Quickest way to make a buck to buy food?"

"Doesn't tell me who you are." I say dangerously.

"Oh. I'm called Vep."

"I see. Well, did you actually take anything from me?" I say thoughtfully.

"No." Vep says, as I plop my chin into my propped up hand while I consider how much money I have left, since I had already let Vep's wrist go.

"Let me see what I can do to get you some dinner." I say, as Jack and Daniel walk through the door. "Just a moment."

"Thank you!" Vep says, hopping onto a chair at my table as I get up to greet Daniel and Jack.

"Guys." I say, waking up to Daniel as he's looking away and startling him. "Any problems?"

"Uh, yeah." Daniel says.

"We were robbed on the way over." Jack says.

"Umm, that could be a problem. How 'robbed' were you? You still have everything in your packs?" I say quietly, but urgently.

"They just took Cale's money." Daniel says.

"I see. Well, what do you want to do? Sam and I got two rooms. I'm not averse to sharing." I say.

"I think I'll turn in." Jack says.

"All right, this way." I say, heading for the stairs. I lead them both to the rooms, not realizing that Vep is following me up. "Which room? Sam's in the right hand room, Teal'c the left."

"Where are you sleeping, Tyler?" Jack asks.

"Wherever there's room." I say, shrugging.

"Left room, then." Jack mutters, knocking on Sam's door. "See you in the morning."

"What's - " Sam starts to ask, after opening her door as Jack gently pushes past her.

"They got robbed." I say.

"Mind sharing a bunk?" Jack asks from inside.

"Sure." Sam says.

"I'm gonna go watch the business downstairs for a little bit." I say, as Sam looks to me curiously.

"I think I will, too." Daniel says, and Sam nods and closes her door.

"You want me to go find your robber? I can get your money back." Vep says, as Daniel and I turn to leave, almost tripping over him.

"Who?" Daniel asks me.

"I made a friend apparently. This is Vep." I tell Daniel. "Would this get you in trouble with the city Pali, if you were to be caught?" I ask Vep quietly.

"Oh, no. Pali don't interfere with the thieves guilds." Vep says.

"I see." I say, and the three of us head back downstairs. Once there, I find a waitress, ask if the kitchen's still open - which it is, -- order Vep a small dinner and resume my position near the back of the bar with Daniel and Vep at my side.

"So why are we buying dinner for Vep?" Daniel asks quietly a moment later.

"Because I told him I would." I answer softly.

"All right." Daniel says, nodding.

"Thank you again for the meal. Is there something you are all in town for? I might be able to help, you know." Vep says, polishing off his plate.

"Well, uh…" I say, glancing at Daniel who is clearly taken off guard by the question.

"You there, woman!" A thick, slurred, male baritone calls loudly from across the room suddenly, catching Daniel's attention.

"He's talking to you, I think." Daniel whispers, and I casually glance in the general direction of the noise.

"Hmm. His mistake then." I say, watching the very fat drunkard heading our way, and Vep starts to hide.

"Woman! I'm talkin' ta you." The drunkard cries, stumbling closer.

"That's Rodrod, town thug." Vep whispers to me from his hiding spot - between Daniel and I - under the table.

"Certainly _is not_ talking to me, then." I say, softly, as Rodrod approaches, nearly shoving Daniel backward from the table as he pulls up a chair.

"Yer new 'ere." Rodrod says, falling very ungracefully into the chair. "Care to take da most probular ride in town?" He slurs, slobbering with a disgusting, leering smile.

"Ha-ha!" I say, sounding very amused. "Not in your century." I deadpan.

"Well we'll jusht habe ta shee 'bout nhat." He slobbers, still grinning.

His left hand reaches for my right knee and I burst into action. I maneuver my legs out of the slob's reach, grab his left wrist with my left hand, and let my right hand wrap around the hilt of my knife as I dig my unusually sharp nails into his greasy wrist, never letting my face show anything but insane serenity.

"_No, we will NOT_." I say quietly, my voice like ice. "You will go back over to your place at the bar, and if I even _think_ you're looking at me, I will remove this hand. Understood?" I say, and he nods slowly. I release his wrist and he scrambles away as I wipe my hand on a nearby napkin.

I suddenly realize everyone is staring at me, including Daniel and Vep. I arch an eyebrow, glance around - Rodrod is being very careful to not look in my direction, I note - and shrug as I casually toss the napkin on the table. A second or two later, the normal noise of the bar resumes.

"How did you? What did? Wha?" Daniel stammers disconcertedly.

"What? I've spent time in bars, I know how things work." I say, becoming aware of a slight pressure on my upper abdomen.

"Yes, but - " Daniel starts, confused.

"Problem Vep?" I ask, looking down to see Vep with his arms wrapped around my midsection in a tight hug.

"I've never had a hero before, let alone the pleasure of seeing Rodrod knocked down a few pegs." Vep says, still not letting go of me.

"Yes, well… Neither of you have met anyone like me before." I say, prying Vep off of me.

"Can I come with you and your friends?" Vep asks.

"Well, can you handle yourself or would I have to keep goin' back and taking care of you?" I ask, thinking about the task ahead.

"I'm pretty good with a short sword." Vep says.

"What do you think?" I ask Daniel.

"I think you should ask Jack." Daniel says hesitantly.

"Alright." I say.

"Whatever you're in town for is pretty dangerous then?" Vep asks, resuming his seat.

"You could say that…" Daniel says.

"Well I hope so! Since I just did." Vep says.

"He meant that we expect it to be a very dangerous undertaking indeed." I say, smiling a bit at Daniel's vexation.

"Oh. Well then," Vep says with a yawn, "I suppose I should turn in."

"As should we if we want to be out of town by noon." Daniel says.

"Right. Got your own room, Vep?" I say.

"Yeah, kind of." Vep says, and I look at him questioningly. "I have a friend who's letting me room with him."

"Alright." I say to Vep, and turn to Daniel. "Let's go."

"Sure." Daniel says, as we stand up. Daniel and I head up one set of stairs while Vep heads up another, and I lead us up to the rooms.

"Where are you gonna be?" I ask, as Daniel and I stand outside the rooms.

"I thought I'd room with you since Jack's rooming with Sam." He says.

"All right, sounds good to me." I say, and he opens the door on my left. We go in, Daniel takes off his pack and jacket and stretches while I get the door to close.

"One bed." Daniel says, stating the obvious.

"So? Problem with sharing?" I ask taking off my jacket.

"Not at all."

"Good. Should I be worried about whatever he's doing?" I say, noticing Teal'c sitting cross-legged and perfectly still on the floor, as I sit down on the edge of the bed and take off my boots.

"Ah, no. He just doesn't sleep like we do."

"Oh. Goodnight." I say, laying down on the bed and rolling onto my left side.

"Sweet dreams." Daniel says, after lying down on the other side of the bed.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning I wake to find my head on Daniel's shoulder as he stretches his upper body.

"Good morning." I say.

"Yeah," Daniel says after a moment, looking at me as if he hadn't noticed me. "Were we like this when we went to sleep?"

"I don't _think_ so." I say. "Doesn't seem to be any clothing out of place…" We are positioned relatively strangely, Daniel lying diagonally from the upper left to the lower right, (the left side being the one I started out on and the one closest to the door,) while I'm lying almost horizontally.

I sit up and check out the room, working out some of the kinks in my back and shoulders. "Yes, but that still leaves the question of how." He says as I notice that Teal'c is no longer in the room.

"True, but until either of us can answer that question I'm gonna ignore it."

"All right."

"So, how do you want to do this?" I ask standing up and go over to the backpacks.

"What?" Daniel asks, aghast.

"I gotta change, so are we gonna turn away from each other or what?"

"Oh, uh… I'll take the first option, just because it saves time."

"Okay." I say, grabbing my jacket and tying it around my waist. I rummage through one pack soon discovering that it's Daniel's. "Okay, we're even." I say, closing up the pack. I rifle through the other pack looking for clean panties, considering why my bra is unhooked.

"What?" Daniel asks.

"That's your pack I was looking through."

"How are we even, then?"

"You've seen me topless, and I've seen your boxers. That's what I call even."

"Oh." Daniel says, as I find the underwear and turn to face a wall, my back towards him as I drop my pants and change my panties, hearing some shuffling from behind me while I'm doing this.

"You good?" I ask zipping the pants I'd pulled back on.

"Uh, yeah." Daniel says, taking his word for it, I go back over to my pack pull out a shirt and socks. "I'm curious, is anyone in your family shy?"

"Not really. Dax sort of, but her twin more than makes up for that." I say, changing my shirt after hooking my bra.

"Oh." Daniel says, as I sit down on the bed to change my socks.

"What would make you think anyone in my family is shy)?" I ask, putting my boots back on.

"Thought I might be liking the black sheep of your family."

"Nah, that's Dax's twin, Dae." I say, before the main point hits me. "You… _like_ me?" I say smiling. I laugh a little at that and at the time it took for his statement to hit me.

"How is that funny?" Daniel asks, not very amused.

"It's, its not. It's actually very sweet, but you sounded rather like a schoolboy. No offense." I say, smiling.

"Oh." Daniel says, smiling sheepishly. "So how much money do we have left?" He asks a few minutes later as I'm putting my brush away.

"Oh, uh…" I say as I check my pockets for the coins Cale gave me last night. "Forty gold, twelve silvers, seven coppers."

"I hope that's enough." Daniel says, heading for the door, and I follow. We go downstairs to the bar to find Jack, Sam and Teal'c seated at a table having breakfast.

"Didn't take you two long." Sam says, as Daniel and I join them.

"Take long for what?" I ask, sitting down next to her.

"Well, I went in there earlier and you two were still asleep together. Kinda figured it would take you a while to get down here." Sam says, taking Daniel by surprise.

"Ah." I say, determined not to let my discomfort show.

"The eggs aren't bad." Jack says, digging into the plate of eggs and bacon that the waitress had just brought him.

"Can I get you two anything?" The waitress asks after setting Sam's plate down.

"I'll have two eggs and a side of bacon, please." I say nicely.

"I'll have the same, please." Daniel says, just as nicely.

"Coming right up."

"So let me ask something while everyone's here." I say, after the waitress walks off. "Is there some reason you know of why General Hammond recruited me? Other than my unique skills, I mean."

"Like what?" Sam asks.

"I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Something like a personnel shortage, maybe?"

"Nothing like that I know of." Sam says, looking around the table. "No offense, but it's not like we make many mistakes."

"Oh of course. If you did I wouldn't ask." I say.

"Perhaps it's more of the old 'two heads are better than one', and you're the most efficient way to accomplish that improvement." Daniel says.

"That makes sense." I say doubtfully.

"Almost sound surprised, Kelly." Jack says, polishing off his eggs.

"No, you haven't heard me surprised yet." I say, seeing the waitress coming towards us with the food Daniel and I ordered.

"Sorry for the wait." The waitress says, setting our plates in front of us.

"That wasn't a wait." I mutter, as she put two glasses of apparently fresh milk in front of Daniel and I.

"Thank you." Daniel says, before the waitress walks away.

"So what are we doing today precisely?"

"After we eat we're supposed to go over to Cale's place." Jack says.

"Okay, do we have room for one more on this expedition?"

"Well…" Sam says slowly. "Couldn't hurt."

"Why?" Jack asks.

"I met a - well, I met a strange little man last night, and he asked if he could help out and come with us." I say.

"Who is it, and how could he help?" Jack asks.

"I don't know how he could help, but he's Vep, and I'm not sure what else. He's behind you, though." I say, as Vep walks up behind Jack.

"Hello." Vep says meekly, as Jack and Sam turn towards him.

"Vep, Colonel Jack O'Neill, Captain Samantha Carter, and Teal'c." I say, gesturing to each of them as I introduce them.

"Hello." Sam says.

"Gonna sit down or what?" Jack asks.

"You remember Dr. Daniel Jackson?" I ask, as Vep drags a chair over to our table and joins us.

"Oh, yes, though I don't think I got your name." Vep says.

"So what do you do?" Jack asks.

"What?" Vep balks.

"Are you strictly a thief or what?" I ask, comfortingly.

"Oh, well… no. I don't think so. I can fight a little, and I travel a lot." Vep says.

"What do you know about the 'Snake Warriors'?" Jack asks.

"Oh! I know more about them than the city Pali. What do you need to know? Where the base is, when the shift changes are, who's in what cell - " Vep says.

"I Gotcha." I say, interrupting him.

"If you really know all of this, you could be a lot of help." Sam says.

"Really!?" Vep says, his orange eyes going wide with amazement.

"You really wanna come?" Jack asks.

"Yeah." Vep says, his amazement quickly subsiding.

"Let's go, then." Jack says, standing up and snagging his pack.

We settle our tab before walking out into the street. The fresh air, the hustle and bustle, and the noise wakes me up and rejuvenates me almost right away. On the way to Cale's home, we walk through one especially crowded portion of the city and I wind up hanging on to Daniel's arm to keep from being trampled. For the entire twenty minutes I am hanging onto him I'm thinking "my, _my_ get a load of this! Very buff for an archeologist". I notice that Vep has grabbed onto Jack and Daniel glances down at me as he holds my hand.

"Afraid you'll get lost Kelly?" Daniel asks, bending some to whisper almost in my ear.

"That too." I say to him quietly, with a little smile.

"Kelly!" Landra cries, as we walk up to the fence.

"Hey Landra!" I say, She runs right up to the fence towards me, as her father comes out of the barn to see what all the commotion is about. Landra climbs up the fence a little to my right and starts to fall. I catch her, of course, and hold her on my hip.

"Jack, good for you to come so early. I'll get Moke and you can get going." Cale says, approaching the fence. "You want to get to the market before everything is gone."

"Yeah, okay." Jack says, and Cale hurries into the house.

"Daddy says you're gonna find my Momma." Landra says.

"Well, we're gonna try." Daniel says, as Moke walks out of the house with three animal skin bags.

"Samantha, Jack, Daniel. Are you ready to go to the market?" Moke says, addressing those he spoke with in detail last night.

"Yeah, I guess." Jack says.

"Can I come too?" Landra asks.

"If it were just you, me, and Mom you could, but I wouldn't want you to get lost, and we're leaving right after." Moke tells her as I put her down in her yard.

"All right." Landra says, before Moke jumps over the fence.

"Back before the week's end." Moke calls, as we start to walk away.

"All right, what's first?" Jack says, as we enter the market district.

"Equipment first. Horses, then food." Moke says, as Daniel grabs my hand.

"Horses?" Jack asks, as we push through the crowd.

"On foot the journey would take more than a week." Moke says leading us into a shop.

"Moke! What's brought you back so soon?" the shopkeeper says as we walk through the door.

"Aunt Shelby. Nothing good, unfortunately. These people are going to help me get my mother back from the Snake Warriors." Moke says, hugging his aunt.

"What do you need?"

"Boots, saddlebags, and I'm sure a few cloaks wouldn't hurt." Moke says, his aunt nods while he's talking.

"All right. I'm Shelby, Merrique's sister." She says, turning towards us.

"Kelly Tyler." I say.

"Samantha Carter."

"Jack O'Neill."

"I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, and this is Teal'c."

"Well met, I'll find what you need and be right back." Shelby says, before going into a back room.

I look around while we wait. Noticing that Daniel isn't just casually following me, but that he is still holding my hand. "So what's your excuse?" I whisper to him playfully, as I draw close to him.

Shelby comes out of the back room with boots on top of cloaks on top of saddlebags, and needles, thread, and scissors in arm, hand and mouth. She set everything down on a nearby counter and turned to us. "Who's first?" Shelby asks.

"I guess I am." Sam says stepping forward. Shelby takes her over to a pedestal and tells her to stand still. She puts a blue cloak on Sam, trims it to fit her height, and tells her to try on some boots. Shelby repeats this process with the rest of us very quickly, surprisingly efficiently putting Teal'c in gray, Jack in brown, Daniel in dark green, and me in cranberry. She decides that all of us need new boots, so she asks us all to try on the boots she had brought out, which - amazingly - fit perfectly.

"Anything else?" Shelby asks, as Sam and I put our boots in our packs.

"Arrows, a flint, and a spit." Moke says.

"No problem." Shelby says, reaching under the counter and pulling out a quarrel filled with arrows, which probably also holds the flint and the spit. "This and five saddlebags make your total twenty-seven, fifteen, nine."

"All right. We need to get out of the city before high sun, so I'm going to go buy some food and water, can you get the horses?" Moke says, as we walk out onto the street after paying.

"Just point me towards the stables." I say, once more holding Daniel's hand.

"Towards the Eastern gates, where you came in." Moke says, pointing down the way. "I'll meet you there shortly."

"All right." I say, as Moke starts to walk away. "Quick question; can any of you ride?"

"Horses? No. Motorcycles…" Jack says, as we head for the stables.

"Not really." Sam says.

"Horses - don't like me." Daniel says.

"I do not." Teal'c says.

"Ah, any of you think you can ride alone?" I ask, as the stables come into sight.

"Yeah, sure." Sam says, after glancing at Jack and Teal'c.

"Uh, no." Daniel says.

"Who do you want to ride with?" I ask.

"I'd rather ride with someone who knows how." Daniel says, as we stop outside the stables.

"Right, so me or Moke?" I say, thinking on how we'd work this. Teal'c needs a larger horse and Jack and Sam need midsizes. Normally I ride a midsize as well, but I'm not sure if that could handle both Daniel and me.

"You, I guess." Daniel says.

"Okay, Vep, mind riding with Teal'c?" I ask quickly.

"I guess not…" Vep says meekly.

"I do not." Teal'c says, I nod and we go in.

"G'dday, I'm Peter. How may I help you?" A young man with brown hair says, walking up to us.

"We need five horses for a week." I say.

"Alright, no problem. Pick your horses and we'll discuss price." Peter says, and I walks over to a brown and white stallion.

"Teal'c, how do you like this one?" I ask.

"It is adequate." Teal'c says, I nod and go over to a blonde mare I'd seen Sam eyeing.

"Sam?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure." Sam says, she walks over to the mare and I go over to a chestnut mare.

"Jack?" I say, Jack nods and gets closer to the horse. I spot a black stallion and keep him in mind as I go over to a black and white midsize. "For Moke?"

"Sure." Peter says, I nod as I walk over to the black stallion.

"Daniel?" I ask.

"You can ride that?" Daniel asks, coming over to me.

"Yep, used to have one just like him, Bolt. You like?" I say, petting the horse's neck.

"Sure." Daniel says.

"Do any of these horses have bad temperaments?" I ask Peter.

"No! Not at all. You want these five then?" Peter says.

"Yes." I say. "How much?"

"Five horses for how many days?" Peter says.

"I'm not sure, less than a week." I say.

"Twenty gold pieces." Peter says.

"Hmm, could you help us saddle up, as well?" I ask.

"Extra five silvers, yeah." Peter says.

"Well, these are very nice horses, but I'd really rather eat. So how does this sound; ten gold pieces for the horses and two silvers for the help."

"Uh, Kelly?" Daniel whispers to me, alarmed.

"Eighteen gold, seven silvers." Peter says, sounding more curious than angry.

"Twelve gold, one silver." I say.

"Fourteen gold even." Peter says.

"Deal." I say, pulling the coins out of my pocket. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise." Peter says, as we shake hands.

"Tell me that Peter charged you under twenty-one gold pieces, please?" Moke says walking up to us as Peter walks off to help put the saddles on the horses.

"Fourteen." Daniel says, sort of amazed.

"How'd you manage that?" Moke asks, equally amazed.

"I don't really know. Big family." I say.

"You give credit for everything to your family, don't you?" Jack asks, sarcastically, as I notice that three of the horses are saddled.

"Yep, and they really do deserve it." I say.

"Really?" Sam asks, as she and I start to unload our packs and load the items into saddlebags.

"Well, I was moving around with my family so much when I was younger I was almost exclusively home schooled when I was really young and neither of my parents were any kind of teachers." I say.

"Oh, that makes sense." Sam says, as Moke comes back over to us. "So you're one of those that like their siblings?"

"Most of the time." I say. "Hey guys, its kind of difficult to ride with a backpack on, might want to use one of those saddlebags."

"Makes a certain amount of sense." Jack mutters, taking a saddlebag that Daniel hands him. We spend a few minutes stuffing the standard issue equipment we'd been carrying into the relatively oddly shaped saddlebags, occasionally talking to multiple inanimate objects when they almost fit or something got left out, and check the equipment we hadn't even tried to fit into the bag while we wait.

"Horses are ready." Moke says a minute later.

"Great." I say, walking over to the black stallion as Sam walks over to hers, Jack to his, Teal'c to his, and Moke to his.

I hop right onto the horse Daniel and I are sharing and help him up. Samantha is up a minute after Moke, and Moke was up right after me, Teal'c is up next, Jack has a little more trouble, but he does get up.

"You okay?" I ask Daniel, as we all ride out of the stable towards the gate.

"Yeah, think so." Daniel says.

"Well, relax will you? You're gonna make the horse nervous." I say, as Moke leads us through the gates.

"How?" Jack asks, obviously overhearing.

"You're nervous, the horse senses it, and gets nervous in return. Kinda like dingoes and fear." I say.

"I actually understood that." Jack mutters.

"Well how do I relax with a hundred pounds of animal under me?" Daniel asks.

"Well… you might wanna hang onto something more substantial than part of the reins. Or you could close your eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale slowly." I say.

"We really do need to pick up the pace." Moke says, as Daniel lets go of the reins and immediately grabs onto my waist.

"Right. How?" Jack says.

"Oughta hang on." I whisper to Daniel, he hangs on just a little tighter.

"Watch and learn." Moke says. He gently snaps his reigns and he and his horse take off.

Sam and Teal'c follow suit almost immediately.

"Need help?" I ask Jack.

"Sure." Jack says slowly.

"Hang on." I tell Jack, he grips his reigns a little tighter and I slap the horse on the rear. The horse takes off after its friends, Daniel squeezes me, and I gently snap the reigns. I am soon riding along side Samantha with Teal'c and Jack not far behind. We ride hard until just before dusk and set up camp in a large clearing. Sam and I tether the horses to a tree, feed them, and water them before going to help with dinner.

"All right, who's cooking?" I ask, sitting down next to Daniel.

"Cooking?" Jack asks.

"Yes, cooking. That funny little thing where meat gets really hot to the point that it's safe to eat. Don't look at me like you haven't done it before." I say, tired of his sarcasm and deciding not to take it anymore.

"Yeah, but we usually don't cook on missions." Sam says calmly, smiling a little.

"All right." I say, with a heavy sigh. "What food do we have on hand?"

"Well, I just picked up some fruit and vegetables at the market, but conies are easy to find in this part of the forest." Moke says.

"Okay. I can hunt while someone else gathers firewood." I say.

"Umm… I don't mean to sound like a complete moron, but what's a coney?" Daniel asks.

"A small, furry creature with long ears known for its great speed because of its leaping gait, usually tame." Moke says.

"A rabbit." I say. "So who's going to gather the firewood?" I stand up and take off my cloak.

"I'll go." Daniel says, after waiting for someone else to offer.

"All right, let's go. I want to get back before full dark." I say, as Daniel stands up.

We head out of camp going South for about ten minutes before I find any sign of a rabbit.

"Kelly?" Daniel whispers, following me closely.

"Hm?" I say softly.

"How are you going to kill a rabbit?"

"Usually I'd have a crossbow or something, but as it stands I think I'm going to have to kill it with my knife."

"Oh. All right. I'm just gonna - "

"Shh." I say, putting my left hand out. "Stay still a moment?"

"What is it?" Daniel asks, as I crouch to see the ground a little better.

"Trip wire." I say, following the wire with my fingertip. "Looks like an alarm or a boundary marker, we should be careful."

"Okay." He says, watching me carefully as I stand back up and gingerly step over the wire. "Kelly…"

"One moment." I say softly, I pull my knife with my right hand, I throw my knife, it hit the rabbit on the head with the pommel, killing it.

"Oh. That was humane." Daniel whispers after I take my hand away.

"Yeah, I'll be sure to ask Moke to clean and skin it out of camp." I whisper, taking out my handkerchief as I go to collect the coney. Picking it up with the cloth around my hand, I snap its neck to make sure it's dead. We pick up three more, all in the same manner, in the next ten minutes and Daniel gathers a bit more wood.

"You're oddly good at this you know." Daniel says, as I search the ground for one more set of tracks.

"Thanks, I'm good at many things." I say, keeping my voice as soft as his. I hear the familiar soft whistle of an arrow as Daniel slams me into a tree. The arrow thuds into a nearby tree trunk.

"Are you okay?" Daniel and I ask each other in unison, we both chuckle softly at that.

"I'm alright." I say, smiling.

"So am I." Daniel says, smiling a little.

"Good." I say, as we stare into each other's eyes for a moment before. We share a deep, long delicious kiss against the tree. "Daniel!" I gasp, as soon as I could speak clearly.

"Kelly?"

"There's someone shooting at us. Besides - "

"You're right, I'm sorry." Daniel says, backing away a little.

"Don't be. What I was going to say is that we have dinner for four other people with us. We should get back, but I'd like to continue this later, though." I whisper.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but first let's go find whoever's shooting."

"Good idea." Daniel says, we move away from the tree a little. I kiss him once, quickly, on the mouth as I move to insect the arrow that Daniel and I wound up against the other tree because of. I judge the angle the arrow was protruding from as Daniel gathers his firewood back up. I follow the predicted path of the arrow as he picks up the conies as well. "Kelly, I have a couple of odd questions for you."

"Okay, ask."

"Does anyone call you Alia?"

"No…" I say after a thoughtful pause. "Do you ask because you want to?"

"Occasionally. The other thing is; who would they be shooting for?"

"You, actually. I wouldn't take it personally until we find out why, though." I say, stopping and looking around. I spot another rabbit and kill it I hear the draw of a bowstring and freeze in my tracks. "Show yourself and face me honorably, coward."

"Alia?"

"Shh. Stay there, Daniel." I whisper. A figure with a loaded bow drops down to my left. I dart forward and pick up my knife at the man with the bow as he aims his bow at Daniel. "Put down your bow and identify yourself!"

"This is my forest! You lower your blade. I'll lower my bow." The man says. I lower my knife and drop it to the ground as he lowers his bow and relaxes the string. "Who are you and why have you come?"

"My name is Kelly Tyler, this is my… companion, Dr. Daniel Jackson. We didn't mean to trespass onto your land. We are just passing through."

"I am Dalarek, of the Lar'Thinanali. Why do you kill so many conies for just the two of you?"

"We are traveling with others. Five conies are all we needed." Daniel says.

"I see… hm. Do you plan to stay in this forest?"

"No. We set off again at daybreak." I say, picking up my knife and the last coney.

"Then begone back to your camp. We will give you no trouble on your return journey." Dalarek says.

"Thank you." I say, sincerely.

"You said 'we', are you not alone?" Daniel asks.

"No, he's not." I say, as Dalarek stares at Daniel and I stare at Dalarek. "We are surrounded."

"Oh."

"It would be wise to leave now." Dalarek says quietly.

"Read my mind." I mutter, as Daniel and I head back to camp.

"Alia." Daniel says, after a while.

"Yeah?" I say, noticing that Daniel had stopped walking, and stopping to turn to him.

"Why did you do that?" Daniel asks.

"What, call him out?" I ask, unsure. Daniel nods in response.

"Because I didn't know where he was exactly, but I heard him draw his bowstring."

"Quite a chance to take."

"More of a chance if he was aimed at you."

"How so?"

"I can catch or dodge anything coming at me. I wouldn't have been able to do catch the arrow or get to you in time if he'd shot at you."

"You were worried about me?"

"Of course."

"Why?"

"Because I like you. Because you're a living being that hasn't tried to kill or hurt me. How's that?"

"Is it the truth?"

"Yes, why would I lie?"

"To get me to be quiet." Daniel says with a small smile as he starts walking. I stare at him for a second half a smile on my face mixing in with my amazement, and then start walking again.

"All right. I killed it, someone else clean it." I say, as we walk back into camp.

"I'll do it." Moke says, taking the six conies from Daniel.

"Anything interesting happen out there?" Jack asks, as Sam takes the wood from Daniel.

"A guy that lives in the forest tried to kill us." I say, as if it was no big thing.

"You all right?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I say, sitting down on a nearby log as Sam builds the fire in the fire pit.

"There wasn't any actual fighting, just a lot of weapons pointed at heads." Daniel says.

"Oh, okay. So who has first watch?" Jack asks.

"I'll take it." Sam says, looking around for a way to light the wood in the pit. I grab a dry rock and pull out my knife and use them to strike a spark, which lights the fire. "Thanks."

"No problem. I forget how many times my family went camping and forgot the matches or lighter or something." I say, as the fire grows a little.

"That must've been fun." Jack says.

"Yeah, it was." I say, as Daniel sits down next to me and I put my knife away. "So are we working on a plan, or are we just going to fly by the seat of our pants?"

"No plan for now." Jack says.

"Awright." I say, spotting something moving near Jack's hand. "Jack, might wanna move your left hand."

"Aw, geeze!" Jack cries, after looking down and to his left as he jumps up from his seat.

Before he could draw his gun and shoot the thing crawling across the other log, my knife was protruding from the log, after killing the snake.

"What? I hate snakes." I say in response to the amazed stares I was getting from Jack, Sam, and Daniel, and the raised eyebrow of Teal'c.

"Nice." Jack says, picking up the body of the dead snake and throwing it into the woods.

"Least it wasn't his hand." I mutter to Daniel, as I get up to retrieve my knife.

"How?" Samantha asks.

"It's hard to explain." I say, cleaning off my blade. "I was just taught to be quick to react."

"How quickly do you judge?" Daniel asks softly in Russian.

"I don't. Or at least I try really hard not to." I reply softly in the same dialect.

"Good things. Now, can we eat?" Jack says guessing as to what we were saying.

"That would be difficult to accomplish without food." Teal'c says, as Moke comes back into the camp with the food and something in an animal skin bag.

"Yeah, okay." Jack says, as Moke puts three of the conies on a makeshift spit over the fire.

Moke cooks and Daniel gives me a little crash course in the Gao'uld language. Once I could easily understand some of the more important phrases - words for 'stop', 'die', or 'idiot' - Sam gives me the briefing on off world protocol she had forgotten earlier. After everyone eats - albeit hesitantly - we work out who's on watch when, I take first with Jack and Sam taking second and third. I climb up into a tree on the West Side of camp and settle in for my watch.

"You're obviously not merchants, then. What are you doing here?" Dalarek says, whispering softly, hardly startling me.

"I told you earlier; we are just passing through." I say, in a barely audible whisper.

"Yes, but to what? We lost your trail at the cursed ring."

"Really? Hmm…" I say, considering the bit about the trail carefully, noting that I have been leaving tracks. "You know about the soldiers, the ones the people of Evermoon call "Snake Warriors", no doubt?"

"Yes, they have taken scores of my people and killed more. That is the reason for the trip wire you found."

"I see. We're just trying to rescue someone at the moment, but we're going to be taking them out if the opportunity presents itself."

"Then my kin and I will join you."

"No. Too many people sneaking in would look too conspicuous. I wouldn't want to see any of your people harmed in this anyway."

"My people can handle themselves just fine, but if you do not wish for our help, so be it."

"Thank you."

"I will come with you alone."

"No, shadow us if you will, but we can't take anyone else along."

"Very well. I will finish out your watch with you, then." Dalarek says, and I nod. "Across the glade."

I hear him move away as I notice that Sam never went to sleep. I watch Vep tangle himself up in the blankets of his bedroll as Sam gets up very quietly and walks over in my general direction.

"Kelly, where'd you go?" Sam whispers very softly to herself, looking for me on the Northeast side of camp.

"Yeah?" I say, dropping down behind her. everyone else is sleeping near the fire on the Southern end.

"Can we talk, woman to woman?"

"Sure." I say, she motions that we should go into the tree. I shrug, jump into the tree, and swing down to help her up. I wrap my legs and ankles around the branch as I reach down. Sam grabs onto my forearms and I hang onto hers. "Hang on." I say, I pull my body up to wrap my arms around the branch, taking her with me. "What's up?" I ask, as we right ourselves, after climbing a little higher.

"Let me be honest," Sam says in barely a whisper, "you are faster and stronger than any twenty-eight year old woman I've ever met. Not to mention your agility and your intelligence, and quite frankly those things have me just a little worried."

"Why? High IQs run in my family and my strength, speed and agility are skills I've developed since I was four."

"Because you seem to be getting very close to one of my friends, and I don't really know you so - "

"You're just trying to look out for Daniel. I understand that."

"Good, so I'll only tell you once; he's a good guy, I've seen bad happen to him before and I don't wanna see it again."

"I'll tell you just like I told Jack earlier; I have no intention of hurting Daniel in any way. I really do like him, believe me or not it's the truth."

"Somehow I believe you." Samantha says softly. "So how am I supposed to get down?"

"Just a sec." I say, I reverse the process I used to bring her into the tree and re-settle myself in the tree I intend to stay in for the night.

"Tyler?" Jack whispers an hour or two later, standing nearby but facing the wrong direction. I shrug and drop out of the tree, landing quietly on my feet behind him.

"Yes?" I say softly.

"Geeze!" Jack exclaims, still whispering, as he turns around to face me. "Call it a night, I'll take over."

"All right. Mind if I stay in the tree?"

"Whatever floats your boat."

'Or finds your lost remote.' I add silently in my head. "Thanks." I whisper aloud, and climb back into the tree.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the night goes off without a hitch, and the next morning I awake to Sam shaking my arm to wake me up. "I'm up, I'm awake." I mumble, yawning and stretching my back. "Hey, I'm awake. You can let go now."

"The horse is fidgeting." Sam says, apologetically.

"Oh, okay." I say, not quite getting what a horse has to do with anything, until I realize that she's standing on my horse's back. "Can you get down?"

"Oh, yeah." Sam says, and proceeds to slowly get off the horse, while I simply drop out of the tree.

"So, what are we doing now?" I ask, as Daniel hands ma a piece of fruit.

"It's still half a day's ride to the Snake Warrior's encampment." Moke says, situating the horses.

"Half a day's hard ride to the fortress." Vep says, feeding Teal'c's horse a carrot.

"The return trip won't have any stops, no unnecessary stops, anyway. They would probably be following us. It would be wise to take great care to get in and get out without being spotted." Moke says.

"Right." Jack says.

"Hate to bring this up, but it seems inevitable that we are going to be seen." I say.

"Would seem that way, sir." Sam tells Jack.

"What would you suggest we do, then? Climb in a window?" Jack asks me sarcastically.

"Hardly, but if we're going to be spotted anyway, why avoid the fight." I say, ignoring Jack's tone.

"Go on." Jack says, rather begrudgingly.

"Well, we're walking in the front door, but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to give up the element of surprise. Two go in to take the guards out, and we just keep fluxing our numbers until we're ready to leave. Then, on our way out, we split into two groups. One group following the other, the first only partially seen and the second not seen at all. Once we get out, we should be safe once we reach the tree line again."

"How do you figure?" Sam asks.

"Obstructed vision, and new friends in odd places." I say, noticing Dalarek is standing behind Jack.

"Or allies, at least." Dalarek says, startling Jack and Vep.

"Who are you?" Jack asks, after drawing his gun.

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, Teal'c, Major Samantha Carter, this is Dalarek of the Lar'Thinanali." I say, standing to greet him.

"We met him in the forest." Daniel says, as Jack lowers his weapon.

"Oh." Jack mumbles.

"Well met." Dalarek says to me.

"Are you and yours in?" I ask, assuming that he's heard our plans so far.

"I am, but it would still be a hard ride into town."

"Yes, well… Would you see what you can do? It looks like we have a few things to do if we're going to stay one step ahead of the, um, Snake Warriors." I say.

"Of course. I should return soon." Dalarek says, and he jumps to climb up into a tree.

"What do we have to do now?" Jack asks.

"Firewood should be a top priority, I think we have enough food for a while now. We really shouldn't stop for anything more than food and rest on the return trip."

"Wouldn't the smoke from the fire let them know where we are?" Daniel says.

"Yes, but so would the tracks from the horses." Sam says.

"So what will we do to throw these people off?" Moke asks.

"My family has a few tricks I've been taught, I keep the most amusing as a last resort usually, but doesn't the Air Force have some protocol or training or something for this type of thing?" I say.

"I think you're thinking of the Marines." Sam says smiling.

"Oh? I doubt it, but whatever you say." I say, attempting to repress my impulse to argue with her. "Either way, no one else can create a false trail?"

"Not in the woods." Sam says.

"I wouldn't know how to hide a _real_ trail." Daniel mutters under his breath.

"Could, but it would take a while." Vep says.

"I see." I say, slightly frustrated, and seeing no other answers forthcoming. "Well, I don't really see the good in splitting the group. How 'bout we just set up some traps and post some extra guard?"

"You know how to set traps?" Jack asks.

"You bet." I say, smiling a little.

"All right. Sam, help Moke ready the horses." Jack says.

"Sure." Sam says.

"Daniel, you and Tyler gather firewood. Vep, you get to tell me and Teal'c about the interior layout of the fortress." Jack says, and Daniel and I nod and head South out of the camp.

"You all right?" I ask as we gather firewood a few minutes later.

"Yeah." Daniel says distractedly.

"Really? 'Cause you seem a bit stiff."

"Yeah, I think I slept on a rock."

"Oh, well, you wanna try riding in front? It might be more comfortable."

"No, that's all right." Daniel says, as I pick up a few more sticks. "Uh, Alia, I heard you talking with Sam the other night."

"Oh-kay." I say, turning back to him. "Is there a problem with that?"

"No! No, I just want to know why you were talking about me?"

"Oh. Well, you have some good friends. Sam was just trying to look out for you." I say.

"Well that's odd." Daniel mutters to himself under his breath.

"What is?"

"Hm?" Daniel asks, not realizing that I heard him.

"What's odd?"

"Just Sam getting involved in my personal life."

"Oh, I see. Either way, she has nothing to worry about." I say, turning from him.

"I know." Daniel says, as I pick up a few more sticks.

"Good. Think we have enough?" I say, comparing my small bundle to his four sticks.

"Yeah." Daniel says. I give him some of my bundle as we head back to camp. "Alia, wait." He says a minute later, stopping where he is.

"What?" I ask, vaguely surprised that there was more to talk about.

"What are we doing?" Daniel asks smiling as I turn to him once more. "We made a dinner date for 'sometime', we wind up sleeping in the same bed, we kiss in the forest, and we ride the same horse. What does that make us? Are we even an us?"

"Well, we have had a few meals together, I won't discount them just because we weren't alone, it's not like anything really _happened_ at the inn, you said you wanted to ride with me, and that kiss was impulsive. Very nice, but impulsive, just the same. So the only real question is; what do you want to make of this? I refuse to chance hurting you by saying the wrong thing." I say, keeping my voice low, as I draw close to him.

"I don't know." Daniel says, as we stare into each other's eyes. "The kiss was _very_ nice?"

"Yes, is that unusual?" I say playfully. He kisses me in response to my question.

"Hey, did you two - "Jack says, coming within sight of us as we kissed, then turning right back around and going back the way he came. We end the kiss for appreciation of oxygen and we just look into each other's eyes.

"So we're on the same page." I say. Daniel smiles and I kiss him shortly, and we head back to camp.

"Got the wood?" Sam asks, I hand her my little bundle and Daniel - his mind a million light-years away - stops. I take the dry sticks from him, hand them to Sam as well, and, in the process, snap Daniel out of his stupor.

"Ahh… maybe later." I say, before Sam can even ask the question on her face.

"Okay." Sam says, slowly, as I sit down.

"So, do we have a handle on the interior?" I ask, as Daniel sits down beside me.

"Yeah." Jack says rather shortly, as Moke tries to build the fire.

"Good things." I say, ignoring his tone.

"Hey, where'd my horse go?" Sam cries suddenly, upon discovering that her blonde mare isn't where we left her.

"I'll find her." Moke volunteers, Jack nods and he starts off. I start to brush down my horse while Jack and Teal'c just sit and wait, Sam packs away the firewood, and Daniel leans agents a tree. I notice Vep is no where in sight when I go to check the horse's bridle, and that Daniel is watching me as I move back to check the saddle bags so it doesn't surprise me when he walks over to me.

"Alia." Daniel says, as I finish up brushing our horse down.

"Hey, wanna give me a hand?" I say smiling as I turn around.

"Sure. Are you ready?" Daniel asks, taking a brush and starting to uncertainly brush down Jack's horse.

"Yep. Just waiting for Sam." I say.

"Good, but not what I mean." Daniel says, and I give him a curious look. "Do you thing you can fight the Gao'uld?"

"Well… I'm fairly certain I can find a way to inflict _some_ damage somehow, and I know I'm going to stay alive." I say. "I do so want to take you out for a ride." I whisper to him as I get on the horse.

Daniel gets on the horse behind me and kisses me quickly as he gets settled. Teal'c, Moke, and Sam get onto their horses quickly and Sam calls for Jack to get a move on. Jack hops onto his horse and we all start off towards the East.

"Cheshire, Daniel, Sam." Jack calls, since we are all behind him. "Just wanted to let you know who's going where."

"All right." Sam says, after she and I ride to either side of Jack.

"Daniel and I will take Moke and find his mother. Sam, you and Cheshire are with Teal'c. Any problems with that?" Jack says.

"No." Sam says.

"How long do we wait if one group gets out first? I don't like leaving people behind." I say.

"Twenty minutes." Jack says.

"Good deal." I say.

"Let's go!" Jack says, kicking his horse to a faster pace, we all follow suit and the rest of the day goes by quietly.

We spot the base shortly before dusk and stop behind an outcropping of rock to regroup. We get as close as possible to the building without being definitely identified and split into the two groups. Sam leads Teal'c and I through the front while Jack, Daniel and Moke go around to the side. I take out my knife and set my mind to hunting while Sam and Moke hide behind pillars. The Jaffa we heard come around the corner just as I was moving behind a pillar. They pass as if we didn't even exist. "All right. If I was an evil warlord with delusions of intelligence, where would I keep my prisoners." I mumble under my breath to myself, as we continue down the hall.

We roam the compound for a while until we hear cries of pain coming from a passageway to our left. As we get closer I realize that they are masculine cries of pain mixed in with interrogation.

"Wait! Sam, Moke. Listen closely." I say, just before we reach the doorway of the room the screams seem to be coming from. I focus my hearing on the chatter from further down the hall. "I can hear Jack." I whisper.

"That's Daniel in there!" Sam whispers.

My mind freezes at that. When it starts working again a quarter second later my thoughts are fueled by a savage rage I have always kept in line without question. "Teal'c, go down the hall. Tell Jack where we are and that I'm gonna go in and distract him for a minute." I whisper, Teal'c nods and heads off. "Sam, I'm thinkin' to stall him for a while, keep Daniel alive for a little longer while you guys come up with a more solidified plan. If you guys take too long you'll miss the fun."

"Kelly, I don't - "

"I'm not putting it up for debate. I'm allowing you the courtesy of letting you know what I'm thinking. I can handle myself, don't worry." I am dashing through the doors before she can speak one word of objection.

I burst into the elaborately decorated room with my eyes lit up by the fires of rage, startling Daniel's tormentor and throwing him off balance. "Who are you to be charging into my private chambers?!" The man starts to cry, as Daniel slumps to the ground unconscious. However, he only gets as far as "Who are you to - " before I am across the room to slam one heel into his face and the other foot lashing out to kick him in the stomach. I jump up and back-flip away from him. He snarls and raises a hand - palm out - towards me as I stand poised to attack across the room. I've flipped out of the way before the fool can fire his little hand weapon thingymabob at me. He proceeds to keep shooting at me and I continue to be two steps ahead of him, meanwhile I'm figuring that throwing my knife at anything this technologically advanced would be incredibly futile, so I keep searching for openings. He pauses his attack just long enough to yell some threat or another at me and I run right up, throwing my cloak - wide out - around my front, and slice my knife right through his neck. His head falls off his shoulders, spraying the inside of my cloak with blood, as Jack, Sam, Moke, and Teal'c charge through the door.

"No guards?" Jack asks, glancing at the decapitated body at my feet as Sam hurries over to check out Daniel.

"None that I saw." I say, stepping away from the body as Teal'c aims his big staff-like weapon at it. He fires twice and it vaporizes right in front of me.

"Are you okay?" Jack asks, as I toss my cloak away, after wiping my face with a clean portion.

"Yeah." I say, easily taking Daniel's vital readings.

"Is he?" Jack asks.

"He'll be all right." I say, standing up to go retrieve my jacket. "We should get out of here soon."

"Is it safe to move him?" Sam says, failing at her attempts to hide her controlled anger at me.

"I didn't appreciate any skull or neck trauma, so I'm sure it's just fine to get him the hell out of harm's way." I tell her impatiently. "Can we go? We don't know how many guards are on their way."

"Right." I say, as Teal'c hauls the still unconscious Daniel to his feet and Jack helps carry him as we head out. We join up with Merrique and Vep, and haul ass out of the fortress. We pick up the horses here we left them and pause to see if we are being followed.

"There are binoculars in your pack." Jack says, as I stare in the direction of the fortress.

"I'm good. They've sent out quite a few guards. My count is twenty-four, none with horses, though."

"Four to one." Jack says.

"At least. We should get moving, they're gaining fast and I think you would want to fight on favorable ground."

"Right." Jack says, turning around to face everyone else. "Saddle up."

"Daniel's still out." Sam says, as I turn around.

"Hey," I say, moving over next to her and taking out a little flashlight I'd found in my pack earlier. She moves over quickly and I check Daniel's eyes to make sure his brain isn't fried. "Pupils equal and reactive, but he is out cold, sluggish response to painful stimuli. We can move him if someone puts him on the horse."

"Let's do it." Jack says, as I stand up. I get on my horse and Teal'c and Jack semi-carefully put Daniel on the horse in front of me before getting on their own horses, and we take off into the forest.

We ride hard until well after Daniel wakes up, at which point I help him into a more comfortable position in front of me and once I get him holding the reins straight he steers and rides like a natural with only minimal help from me. We dismount in a suitable glade and Sam helps me set traps away from the parameter while Jack and Moke ready the camp, and Daniel and Merrique rest. Once the traps are set - including one especially nasty one involving a length of rope and a spare knife from Moke, - Sam and I head into camp to have dinner and lay plans for a quick defense.

"So what precisely are we going to do? Hand to hand, long range artillery, mix and match, or what?" I ask, as we finish our meal.

"Mix 'n match." Jack says, finishing his coney and biscuit. "Tyler, Moke, you can take hand to hand. Carter, Teal'c and I will shoot at 'em."

"Okay." I say simply.

"What about Merrique and I?" Daniel asks rather suddenly. "I don't think I'm up for a fight, but there's no where to hide."

"Who told you that?" I ask, grinning in pure amusement. "This is a forest, you have a wide variety of places to hide. Pick one; behind or above."

"Above, I guess." Daniel says, after a moment's thought.

"Merrique?" I ask.

"Above. I'll take no chance of being taken again." Merrique says nervously.

"All right, and Vep?" I ask.

"I'll find somewhere to fit in, in either battle or in the trees." Vep says.

"Sounds good, let's get moving." Jack says, standing up.

"Trees?" Daniel asks me, after I stand up.

"Didn't climb many as a kid eh?" I say teasingly, half smiling. "Don't worry about it."

"Yeah, right." Daniel says slowly, as I get some rope.

"Merrique, you first." I say, as I look up at the boughs of the trees to figure out which way to hide her. I choose to take her West and lead her that way. I stop us near a tree and jump into the lower branches I swing back down to help Merrique into the tree behind me and - once she's in the tree beside me - lead her higher. I settle he into one of the higher branches on the South side of the tree and tie her to the tree trunk, loosely but still securely. I quickly descend though the boughs and drop out of the tree. I make my way back to the camp quickly, passing Jack on my way without his noticing.

"Daniel, your turn." I say, surprising him, I think, as he leaned on a tree with his eyes closed.

"That was quick." Daniel says.

"Think you can keep up?" I ask.

"Well, yeah. I can keep up with Jack…" Daniel mutters to me as I start to lead him South.

"Kelly, wait." Sam says, as we pass her.

"What's up?" I ask, pausing when I see that she's holding a longbow and quiver full of arrows.

"Dalarek dropped this off for you." Sam says, holding the bow and quiver out for me. I take them and test the draw of the bowstring.

"Nice." I say, truly appreciative of the old fashion longbow. "Any problems with me using this?"

"No." Sam says.

"Cool." I say, slinging the quiver over my shoulders. "Thank you for the bow, Dalarek."

"He left…" Daniel says, as puzzled as Sam, as we walk out of the glade.

"That's what you think." I say cryptically.

I find a big tree not too far off the South side of the camp and jump into the lower boughs. I swing down to help Daniel into the tree.

"You're kidding me." Daniel mutters disbelievingly.

"No, but we should hurry so let's go." I say impatiently.

"There's no way that would work."

"Yes, it will, has never failed me before, would you please get up here?" I say, a bit more sharply than I intend, but he jumps a bit and wraps his arms around my waist tightly. I wrap my arms around his wais and lift us into the tree. I lead him up into the tree, helping him along the way, and settle him into a sturdy branch on the Western side of the tree. "I'm sorry I was so short with you a minute ago." I say, tying him just as I had tied Merrique to the trunk. "I don't wait well."

"Oh, it's all right." Daniel says, slowly. "Where's your uh…"

"Quiver? I hung it on the lower boughs with the bow." I say. "I'll be back soon, stay quiet." He starts to say something and I kiss him on the mouth quickly. "For luck." I whisper, and drop down to the next bough before he can regain his thought pattern to respond. I pick up my new bow and quiver and immediately head North towards the camp. I drop out of the tree next to Jack, landing in a crouch, looking over his shoulder at the diagram of the glade that someone had drawn in the dirt. "Slight change of plans." I whisper, clearly startling the living daylights out of the guy. "I'll pick one or two off from the trees, okay?"

"Fine, whatever." Jack says, and we hear some of the traps as they're sprung as I jump back into the trees, and move over to the West a little bit as I notch my first arrow, readying the second and third arrows. The first three Jaffa soldiers come into the camp, it takes under four seconds for me to drop all three, Jack and Sam getting off a few shots at the same time. I decide to drop out of the tree when I see the next eighteen soldiers not far from the edge of camp, and Moke about to rush all of them. The soldiers take aim at me mostly, a few shoots, so I flip and dodge the shots to get closer to the soldiers. I knock a soldier out with a few punches and take his partner's quarterstaff type weapon. I turn to the rest of the soldiers - expecting to see sixteen not engaged soldiers, - and am surprised that only four remain standing. I shrug as I continue to spin the staff weapon end over end in front of me as the other guy I was facing looks for an opening. I slam one end into the guy's stomach, stabbing downwards as he doubles over, breaking the guy's neck. Two of the final three decide that I am the lesser enemy, so I slam them both in the face at the same time, breaking their noses, and hitting them again at a different angle to drive the shards of broken bone into their brains.

"Did they even get any shots off?" I ask, throwing the staff weapon like a javelin at the guy that almost has Moke down. The thrown weapon caves in the back of the soldier's skull upon impact and he collapses.

"Silly question Tyler," Jack says, walking over to me as I make sure the three I fought hand to hand aren't just unconscious. "How many this fight?"

"Seven, not counting the three caught in the traps." I say somberly.

"That's seven and a half, you deserve credit for the last one." Moke says, while he tries to catch his breath.

"Okay." I say, grabbing a piece of wood and a bit of cloth to make a torch.

"We should head back to town." Sam says, inspecting the overall damage.

"Good call in keeping the horses _Southwest_, by the way." Jack says sarcastically.

"Sir, the soldiers came from the Northeast." Sam says in my defense.

"I _know_." Jack says. "Why don't you go get Daniel and Merrique so that we can leave?"

"Not till I know what else is ahead." I say, lighting the torch.

"No one else follows you this night." Dalarek says softly from behind me.

"All right." I say, tossing the torch into the fire. "Back in a bit." I go retrieve Merrique first, heading East and taking my own sweet time making my way back to camp so that Moke can clean up for his mother a little bit.

"Dalarek, I almost forgot." I say, when I return to camp again, before he can leave. "Thank you for use of these." I hold out the longbow for him to take back.

"You're welcome, but those are gifts, I cannot take them back." Dalarek says.

"Oh. Then I'll keep them in good condition." I say, replacing the bow on my back.

"And I'll take my leave." Dalarek says, and jumps into the nearest tree.

"Tyler," Jack calls.

"I know, I'm going." I say, heading South. I find the tree I put Daniel in and climb it quickly. "Hey."

"Hi." Daniel says.

"How are you feeling?" I ask, cutting the rope I tied him with.

"Better than you, I think." He says, touching the right side of the top of my forehead, I wince and immediately come to the conclusion that there's a cut there.

"Nah, that's nothing."

"Oh is it?"

"Yeah, you should see the other guy." I say jokingly.

"What did who do?" Daniel asks, now serious.

"You mean what I call 'final score'?" I ask, suspecting that I am right. "Vep got one, Moke gottwo and a half, Sam and Jack got five apiece, Dalarek got three, the traps got three, and I gotsix and a half."

"There were twenty-six?"

"Yeah, and Dalarek says there aren't any more in the forest." I say, matching his disbelief with my amazement.

"I still can't figure out how we got out." Daniel mutters softly.

"I'm not sure, we didn't really encounter much trouble on the way out." I say quietly. "C'mon." I start to lead him down.

"No, I mean," Daniel says hesitantly as he follows me down, "why am I not dead?".

"Because the guy with the hand-doohickey is."

"Oh." Daniel says, as we reach the lower boughs. I drop out of the tree and he's not so quick to follow.

"Don't try to show off, just get down here." I say softly, as comfortingly as I can while trying very hard not to giggle.

"Okay, uh…" Daniel murmurs, a second later his legs swing down rather wildly. "Help?" He gasps.

"Here," I say, grabbing his ankles. "Keep your grip." I pull gently to ease him down, adjusting my grip accordingly whenever necessary. He loses his grip when I grab him by the hip, probably startling him, which throws me off balance, and we tumble to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asks, a moment later as we gaze at each other, and while he is still lying on top of me.

"Yeah, you?"

"I'll be fine, as soon as you move your arm."

"Hey, at least I didn't drop you." I say teasingly, and we share a chuckle at that. "All right, up. I can't feel my left arm anymore."

"Did you hurt it in the fall?" Daniel asks, rolling to my right.

"No, you just cut off the circulation." I say, smiling as I flip back to my feet. I help him to his feet and we start to head back to camp.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asks, as I slip my arm around his waist.

"Hm? Oh, nothing."

"You sure? You seem a little reflective."

"And you seem a little presumptuous. No. It's just that… I don't really know how to put this, it's totally new to me."

"It's okay, take your time."

"Well… when I realized that _you_ were the one being hurt I completely flipped out. I've never reacted quite that strongly to anyone before."

"Oh, and this is a problem?"

"Not - precisely… I'm just not sure how to handle it. I mean, I know I don't want to get rid of the source, but with what I'm capable of I think I need to - "

"I understand." Daniel says, sounding completely heartbroken.

"No, you don't." I say, slightly annoyed at being interrupted. "I need to find a new way to control my temper."

"Oh." Daniel says, his voice full of relief. "Wow"

"What?" I ask softly.

"We really _are_ on the same page."

"Well, I thought so."

"You did?" Daniel asks.

"Girl can dream, right?" I joke, Daniel smiles and I kiss him on the mouth shortly.

"You must've been your parents' worst nightmare as a teenager." Daniel says, laughing softly.

"Nah, that was Dae's job." I say smiling. "Hey people."

"Well you two look cozy." Jack says sarcastically. "Do I even want to ask?"

"I kind of fell out of a tree." Daniel says.

"Twisted ankle." I say.

"Oh, well let's go." Jack says, motioning over towards the horses.

"Wanna ride in front again?" I ask Daniel, as everyone heads for the horses.

"Sure." Daniel says slowly. "Are you sure you're not concussed?"

"Yeah, I'm all right." I say, as we approach our horse. "This is nothing."

"Oh." Daniel says, getting on the horse. "So what's been your worst injury?"

"Oh, I don't know… I've been shot three times, once with a bow and arrow, and stabbed twice." I say, my hand subconsciously drops to the spot just above my left knee, where I have a scar from my first knife wound. "I've dislocated my shoulder a few times, too."

"Woah." Jack says, riding to one side and in front of us.

"Who shot you with a bow?" Sam asks, riding up beside Daniel and I.

"My sister, by accident, in the arm." I say, tapping the faded scar on my left arm.

"How old were you?" Daniel asks.

"Fourteen." I say.

"Your parents _must_ be insane." Jack says.

"Yeah. Kinda." I say, making a mental note not to fall asleep until Dr. Fraiser checks me out. "Nothing clinical, they're both just wildly imaginative."

"Very interesting. Let's go." Jack says.

We pick up the pace, ride into town, return the horses, make sure Merrique and Moke get home safely, and head back to the Stargate.

"Daniel, dial us up." Jack says as we approach the grove.

I watch him walk over to a circular pedestal with an orange globe of glass in the center and panels with runes on them surrounding it. He pushes down a particular seven panels and the 'gate activates.

"Do you think I'll ever get used to that?" I ask Daniel quietly.

"Maybe." Daniel says softly.

"Hm. Bummer." I say, as Jack, Sam and Teal'c walk through the 'gate and Daniel and I start to follow them.


	5. Chapter 5

"Welcome home." General Hammond says, as the Stargate deactivates behind Daniel and I.

"Good to be home, sir." Jack says.

"So the mission was a success?" General Hammond asks, as we follow him out of the 'gate room.

"Yes, sir. Tyler even took out a Gao'uld." Sam says.

"Apophis?" General Hammond asks.

"No, sir." Jack says.

"Oh, well. Doctor Jackson, Ms. Tyler, you two should get down to the infirmary. Colonel, I can hardly wait for that report."

"I'll get right on it." Jack says.

"Dismissed." General Hammond says, and Jack and Teal'c head off in one direction and Samantha, Daniel and I head toward the elevator.

"All right, whom do I have to talk to in order to get the stuff out of my car?" I ask, as we get on the empty elevator.

"You can go get it after you get settled in." Sam says.

"What's in your car that's so important?" Daniel asks.

"Nothing much. Just some clothes, shoes, music, etcetera, etcetera." I say.

"_Shoes_?" Sam asks.

"Just two spare pair. A pair of boots and a pair of tennis shoes." I say.

"I'm more interested in the music." Daniel mumbles.

"What about it?" Sam asks.

"Kelly, what music stuff do you have with you?" Daniel asks.

"Portable CD player, CDs, and my violin." I say.

"You play the violin?" Sam asks.

"I thought you play the fiddle."

"I play both." I say, nodding.

"I'll see you later." Sam says, as the doors open on our floor.

"Oh my." Dr. Fraiser says, under her breath, as we walk into the infirmary a few minutes later. "This way."

Daniel and I follow her to as set of curtain areas down the corridor and immediately are helped - unnecessarily - onto gurneys.

"So this is where all the good help went." I joke under my breath, getting another little smile out of Daniel.

"Excuse me, you both need to change into examination gowns, but the curtains won't close completely." A nurse says, standing between the foot of our beds

"Go ahead and close them as much as possible." Daniel says, the nurse looks to me.

"We'll make do." I say, the nurse shrugs and closes the curtains to just where they meet at the ends of our beds, effectively closing us off from the rest of the room. We both start to undress after finding those gowns, though I notice that Daniel is moving quite a bit more slowly than usual. "You all right?" I ask finally.

"Well, I'm not doing any worse." He says, slipping on his gown.

"That's something I guess." I say, putting on the gown and wincing a little as I undo my bra to take it off.

"Would you mind, uhm…?" Daniel asks, turning his back to me as I half turn towards him.

"Sure." I say, fastening the back of his gown. "Good?"

"Thanks. You want me to do yours?"

"Sure." I say, turning my back to him and flipping my hair over my left shoulder so that it's out of the way.

"So would you like to go out to dinner tonight?" He asks, as I resist the urge to start giggling.

"Let's see… this is Friday?" I ask, openly amused by the way he asks so quickly. He mutters an affirmative in response anyway. "Sure. I usually cook on Fridays, but I don't really think I want to right now anyway."

"Oh." He says, with a shy smile. "Is something wrong?"

"Hm? Oh. No, my back's just a bit ticklish."

"Oh." Daniel says, fastening the last thingy and resting a hand on my back.

"Thanks." I say, turning around. We share a very significant look, which ends when we both become very aware of our current state of almost dressed. He glances around quickly before we sit down on our respective gurneys.

"I was thinking to go to this little Italian place. It's a little formal, though." He says, clearing his throat, to break the tense silence.

"That sounds great. What time?"

"Oh, uh… how's eight thirty?"

"Sounds good, just enough time to change, right?"

"Yeah, I have to go back to my apartment to change, though." Daniel says.

"And getting there, doing your thing, and getting back will only take an hour and a half?" I ask sarcastically.

"Come to think of it, no…"

"So how 'bout this instead; you go home and change, I'll change here and come pick you up, then we'll go. How's that?"

"That's actually a better plan, let's go with that."

"All right, so who wants thinks they're the more serious case?" Dr. Fraiser asks, pulling back the curtain.

"Well, Dr. Jackson had a two-hour LOC. I did a thorough neurological exam in the field before moving him." I say, glancing over at him.

"Well, yeah, but she's the one that's bleeding."

"He fell out of a tree."

"And we have a winner." Dr. Fraiser says, going over to Daniel's bedside. As Dr. Fraiser checks out Daniel, I let Beethoven's Appasionata play in my mind.

"What is that?" Daniel asks a little while later, as Dr. Fraiser leaves the room.

"Hm?" I ask quietly.

"What was that that you were humming?"

"Oh, uh… Beethoven's Appasionata, but uh… I was humming?"

"Yeah." Daniel says smiling. "How did you not notice?"

"Was I loud, then?"

"No, not particularly."

"Then I don't know. How is it that guys don't usually notice their own down fly?" I ask jokingly.

"Seriously?" Daniel asks, obviously a bit surprised.

"No. Recent memory just flitted through my mind."

"Uh, how recent?"

"That first morning in Evermoon. Don't worry, I don't think anyone else noticed."

"Oh." He says, after letting it sink in for a moment.

"All right, Ms. Tyler, your turn." Dr. Fraiser says, coming back. "Oh, and a nurse noticed something around your collar that she couldn't identify."

"Oh, peppermint."

"I see." Dr. Fraiser says, making a note in my chart. "So how did you hurt yourself?"

"Well, evidently I got whacked in the head at some point, other than that I'm fine."

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing serious. Couple of minor scratches."

"Okay." Dr. Fraiser mutters, as she examines my forehead and eye. "I don't think an orbital series in necessary."

"Good things."

"Is there anything else you want me to take a look at?"

"Nope, I'm good."

"All right." Dr. Fraiser says, as she makes another note on my chart. "I'll let you both get dressed and then you can go."

"Okay." Daniel says, and I nod. Dr. Fraiser takes our charts and closes the curtains behind her as she leaves the room again. "How's your ankle?"

"Good, so good that I forgot about it."

"Oh, good." He says, as I start to get re-dressed.

"Well that's strange…" I murmur a few minutes later, after Daniel and I got to the point that we could pull back the curtains.

"What is?" Daniel asks, as I search my pockets.

"Hey guys." Sam says, as she comes into the room.

"I had a necklace…"

"What's up?" Sam asks, as I search the bed.

"Kelly lost a necklace." Daniel says, a bit uncertainly, as I look on the floor near the bed.

"Hi Sam." I say, working the chain free of the hinge it's caught on.

"You know, there are reasons you're not supposed to wear jewelry on missions." Sam informs me sarcastically.

"I know, but it can't slip off and the catch is rusted shut. I took it off incase Dr. Fraiser wanted to get a CT or something."

"Do you wear it a lot?" Daniel asks.

"Got it!" I cry victoriously, holding it up as I opened the clasp. "I almost always wear this. Memento of home an' all."

"Its nice." Daniel says.

"Is it real?" Sam asks, sounding doubtful.

"Yep." I say, admiring the amber and aquamarine in the pendant.

"Cool." Sam says, as I put it back on and slip it underneath the collar of my shirt. "General Hammond wants me to show you to guest quarters, and he asked to see Daniel in his office."

"Why does he want to see me?" He asks tenetively.

"I don't know, he didn't say."

"All right." He says, heading for the door. "I'll see you later, Kel'."

"Yeah." I say before he leaves.

"This way." Sam says, ushering me out.

"So what should I expect? This is my first time really staying on any sort of military base, and I know it's no Montecito hotel, but it's also not, like, the Baldwin Motel, either."

"Well, you're right, I guess. I suppose accommodations are closer to Caesar's cheap rooms. What's the Orpheus?"

"A Vegas casino. Not as nice as some, but better than others."

"Nicer than Caesar's?"

"Yeah, I took a bottle of Nonoxil 9 and a black light with me to Caesar's, my friend took one to the Orpheus, my sister took some to the Mirage, and one of my brothers took some to the Montecito one weekend. We all wound up staying at the Montecito."

"Really? I gotta take some of that with me next time."

"Nah, just give me a buzz."

"I really wouldn't want to bother you."

"How else are you going to find the web page?"

"You put pictures on the Internet?"

"Yeah. We gave all of the businesses a fair fortnight's notice that if they didn't call us and ask us to take them down the pictures would stay up permanently. We gave them our numbers, the site address, and our email. They all had a fair shot."

"And?"

"And no one called. We started ranking hotels based on cleanliness and casinos based on a poll we had up, sending out congratulations letters or naughty-naughty letters, and _no one_ called."

"Wow." Sam says, as we stop outside a door. "Well, this is it. Clothes are in the dresser. Housekeeping comes twice a week, and the bathroom is stocked with toiletries."

"Nice door. Thanks." I say.

"If you need me, I'm in D-728." Sam says, opening the door.

"All right." I say, as I take off the scabbard for my knife. "I guess I'll get my luggage later."

"So what are you doing later?"

"Dinner, actually. With Daniel."

"Oh really? So I can get details later."

"We'll see." I say slyly.

"All right." Sam says. "Oh, and here." She hands me a laminated photo ID.

"Oh, thanks." I say, slipping it into my purse. "I've gotta get going. I'll talk to you later."

"'Bye." Sam says, just before she closes the door, leaving me to my own devices.

An hour and a half-later, after a long, hot shower and a change of clothes, I go up to my car and retrieve two suitcases and head back to my room. I start to relax with a book and my CD player and then someone knocks on my door. I mark my place in the book and pause my music as I get up to answer the door.

"Hey." I say, after opening the door to see Daniel standing there, cleaned up and straightened out.

"Hey. Can I come in?"

"Oh, yeah, of course." I step aside to let him in and close the door behind him. "What's up?"

"Just wanted to see how you were settling in."

"I'm good. Would you like to sit down?" I motion to a chair to his right, which he takes as I sit on the edge of my new bed.

"Occurred to me a little while ago that you might want to know how to get to my place." He says.

"Right, somehow I thought I had more time, but now is fine." I say with a little grin.

He gives me directions to his apartment and leaves to let me get dressed. I find my favorite violet dress and my purse. I change and fix my hair and put my wallet in my purse. I decided to wear the black heels I came in with since the dress was violet and not purple - the difference being that what I call violet is dark blue with tints of purple. I put on a set of crystal earrings with a matching cross on a silver chain. I take one last look in the mirror, make the cut on my forehead disappear, and head down to the parking garage. I get there, find my car, and get through security within twenty minutes. I follow the directions Daniel gave me to the letter and half an hour later I'm waiting for Daniel to answer his door.

"Hi." Daniel says, after opening the door.

"Hi." I say, as he ushers me in.

"You look great."

"Thank you. I was worried it was too much." I say. "You look very nice yourself."

"Thanks." Daniel says with a smile. "We should go."

"Right." I say, turning for the door, which he opens for me and he grabs his keys. We take the elevator down to the main floor and dead directly for my car. We get in, Daniel sets the radio after I start the car, and I pull out onto the road.

"This is a really great car." Daniel says, as he directs me to the restaurant.

"Thanks. It was a present from a friend." I say.

"Good friend?"

"Yeah. He has a blue one and bought me this one for Christmas so that he'd have someone to race against."

"Ah." Daniel says, probably not too pleased that I get the car from a 'he'. "There's the restaurant, 'La Sera'." I park away from the door after the pulling into the lot, and set the alarm as we get out of the car. He opens thee door for me as we enter the restaurant and the hostess comes directly over to us.

"Bonjourno. I am Serena, your hostess. Do you have a reservation?" The tall, olive skinned, curly haired, gorgeous brunette woman says.

"No." Daniel says, only a little bit of nervousness showing through.

"Lucky for you, our best table is open. Come, this way." Serena says before Daniel can say anything else, she seats us just to the right of the fireplace, right next to a window with a great view. "I'll send the waitress right over."

"Thank you." I say, as she sets menus on the table and Daniel pulls out my chair. She smiles and walks away an Daniel and I sit down.

"I've never gotten such a good table here before." Daniel says softly. "You must be good luck."

"Maybe." I say softly, opening my menu. "Wow."

"What?"

"I didn't realize you're made of money... No offense."

"Don't worry about it." Daniel says, opening his menu.

"Hello, I'm Andrea, I'll be your waitress this evening. Are you ready to order, or shall I return?" The shorter, olive skinned, straight haired, pretty brunette says from my left.

"Yes, I think we'll have two glasses of white wine and another look at the main courses." Daniel says, as I smile and the waitress nods. She glances at me and walks away. "I hope I wasn't being too presumptuous."

"Not at all." I say simply. "This place is very nice. How is the food?"

"Very good. Reminds me of this little café I ate at in Venice."

"Do you remember the name?"

"I think it was 'La Bella de Italia'."

"Oh, I know that place. I lived in Venice for a little while."

"Really?"

"Yeah, six months with two of my brothers and the twins." I say. "When were you there?"

"A while ago, alone." Daniel says.

"Lucky. I had to keep sneaking off after my sister."

"Not really. I just did the tourist thing." Daniel says, as I decide on a chicken pasta dish. "When did you go?"

"Six or seven years ago. Between college and law school."

"About the same time as me." Daniel says, smiling, setting aside his menu.

"Ready to order?" Andrea asks, setting two glasses of white wine in front of us.

"Yes, uh." Daniel says, looking to me.

"I'll have the chicken alfredo."

"Shrimp scampi, please."

"All right, I'll be right back." Andrea says, taking the menus as she walks away.

"So, which profession did you always think you'd have?" Daniel asks after a few moments of quiet.

"Oh, I don't know. In my family 'party girl' could be a career choice, but it was probably 'singer'." I say, as he sips on his wine.

"So you're really good?"

"Well, I don't know about that, but I think it's one that I enjoy the most."

"Would you give a demonstration?"

"Oh, uh…" I say, glancing around a little nervously. "Maybe later."

"Okay." Daniel says, putting me at ease as I sip my wine.

"'Scusi. I'm a big fan and I just wanted to ask for your autograph." A waiter says, standing to my right, surprising Daniel and I with his request.

"This might seem a silly question, but who do you think I am?"

"You are one of the sopranos I heard at the opera in Milan last year." The waiter says confidently.

"Couldn't hurt, could it?" I ask Daniel in Egyptian.

"No, I don't think so." Daniel replies, likewise in Egyptian.

"May not be worth much, but sure. What's your name?" I say, speaking in English once more.

"Paolo." The waiter says, handing me a clean linen napkin and a pen. I write 'Do what you love and love what you do, Paolo' and sign it. "Thank you." He says.

"No problem." I say, smiling as he takes the pen and napkin.

"I can't believe you just did that." Daniel mutters, sipping his wine, as Paolo walks away.

"I didn't do anything wrong, and why should I have disappointed someone when these people have treated us so nicely?"

"Okay." Daniel says, as I sip my wine. "So you wanted to be a singer, but you went to law school?"

"Yeah. Went as a backup, never really got into the music industry."

"Did you practice?"

"Law? For a while. Criminal prosecution." I say, sitting back and reminding myself to stop taking my anxiety out on my wine glass. "Started stressing out too much, though."

"So you quit?"

"Yes and no. I quit and then told one of he defense attorneys precisely what I thought of his firm. When I quit, though, my boss tried to fire me for losing it with a judge."

"Losing what?"

"My temper." I say, as I catch sight of Andrea with our food.

"Here you go." Andrea says setting one plate in front of each of us.

"Thank you." I say, placing a napkin on my lap.

"If there's anything else let me know." Andrea says.

"All right, thank you." Daniel says, before she starts to walk away. "So how did you lose your temper?" He asks, as I switched my fork to my right hand.

"Oh, ah… I hit him when he grabbed my butt."

"Really?" Daniel asks, chuckling as I nod. "How old was he?"

"Probably forty-five, and married." I say. "I was twenty-three and having a bad day. Knocked him out cold without breaking anything." I smile as he laughs.

The rest of the meal goes quickly with exchanges of summaries of life stories and good food. I tell him of my intent to go to medical school, a decision encouraged by my adventures as an ER nurse in a Chicago county hospital, and he tells me of his college adventures. We decide against dessert and arrange for my car to be left in the restaurant parking lot for the night. Neither of us are drunk, only having about two glasses of wine apiece, but neither of us should drive either, so we resolve to walk back to Daniel's apartment, which really isn't that far. Daniel pays the bill, I tip, and we leave.

"You are one of the most unusual people I've ever met." Daniel says, as we walk down the street, hands entwined.

"Yeah, I bet you say that to all the girls."

"No, not at all." Daniel says tenderly.

"Oh, so just the prettiest?" I say without even a hint of sarcasm. He looks down and smiles a little sadly and I stand on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. We share a meaningful gaze into each other's eyes and head inside Daniel's building.

"Would you like to come up?" Daniel asks, before we head for the elevator.

"Yes." I say, and he presses the call button for the elevator. "Daniel, should we be doing this?" I ask, as we get on the elevator a minute later. He looks at me curiously as he presses the button for his floor. "Dating, I mean. Do you think it would interfere with work?"

"Don't you think our feelings for each other are already effecting our work?"

"Good point." I say, as the doors open on our floor. "Especially considering that my attraction to you was nearly instantaneous."

"Really?" Daniel asks, smiling as he unlocks the door.

"Yeah." I say. He opens the door and we go in. "Wow, nice place."

"Thanks." Daniel says, turning on the lights in the front room.

"This might sound completely insane, but I would have never guessed that you live so nicely... No offense."

"I can't take offense to what I don't get."

"Oh, it's just that with every guy who's apartment I've been to - which haven't been many - you could tell that they had cleaned specially for you. I'm not getting that here." I say admiring some of the things as he has out on display.

"Even your brothers'?" Daniel asks.

"Are you kidding? My brothers don't even try to hide anything from me."

"Hm…" He says, with a soft sigh. "So how 'bout that demonstration now?"

"Well, what do you want to hear?" I ask thoughtfully, noticing it was nearly midnight.

"I don't know. Whatever you want is fine."

"All right." I say, remembering that he's kind of into a little of everything and he knows I'm not a songwriter. "Then make up my mind for me; 'One More Minute', or 'Cornerstore'?"

"I'm going to pick 'Cornerstore'." Daniel says. I nod and proceed to sing 'Cornerstore' by Dogstar.

"Wow." Daniel says, after I'm done.

"Thanks." I say.

"No, really wow." Daniel says, and I laugh.

"That was originally done by Dogstar, as far as I know." I say smiling.

"Who's he?"

"A very good rock band. I've met them a few times."

"Cool."

"I suppose." I say, Daniel turns to reach for something and winces in pain, immediately stopping the movement. "What's wrong?"

"Bruised rib." Daniel says through gritted teeth.

"Did Dr. Fraiser put you on any pain medication?"

"No." He says pulling himself together. "I'm okay." I look at him worried, after moving over to sit on the couch next to him. He kisses me passionately, and I let my hands roam around his torso as he holds me around the waist. We come up for air a minute later, our eyes locked, and then, suddenly, Daniel stands up and walks around the couch.

"What's wrong?" I ask, only having a guess as to what he is doing.

"Nothing. I'll be right back." He says, and he goes into another room quickly. I know what's going on as I hear a click from the other room. I slip off my shoes and silently thank the gods that I'd shaved my legs. Before Daniel returns I go check out the view from his balcony.

"Nice view." I say, hearing a footfall behind me.

"I always thought so." Daniel says from behind me. I smile as I turn to him. Daniel walks over to me to stand right in front of me. He kisses me, holding me close with his right arm as I wrap my arms around him. I quickly let down my hair as he attempts to undo my bra. I giggle in his mouth and he pulls away to look at me curiously.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that just tickled." I say, smiling widely as I unhook my bra for him. He chuckles and I kiss him. We pull each other's clothes off, moving towards the bedroom, kissing and groping all the while. I fall onto the bed, Daniel falling on top of me.


	6. Chapter 6

The morning after I awake to find Daniel watching me. "Good morning." I say smiling.

"Good morning." Daniel says smiling.

"How did you sleep?"

"Well. You?"

"Just wonderfully. How's your shoulder?"

"Better." He says, I smile and kiss him. "Do you have clothes in your car?"

"Yeah."

"All right. I'll go get them in a little while."

"Okay." I say, tracing a line of a bruise on his shoulder gently with a fingertip. "What now?"

"I'm not sure. Breakfast?"

"Want me to cook?"

"Only if you want to." He says, I sigh and move closer, snuggling into him. Daniel kisses my forehead and I look up at him smiling. "I love you."

"I love you too." I say, without hesitation. "And I could stay like this all day."

"Unfortunately, we have to work today." Daniel says, seemingly genuinely disappointed.

"When?" I ask, noticing his clock.

"We should leave by seven thirty."

"Whoops." I say. "It's a quarter past eight."

"Uh… yeah. Whoops. We should get going. General Hammond had SG-1 scheduled for another mission at noon." Daniel says, sitting up and rolling out of bed.

"All right." I say, as I roll out of bed. "Do you want to get in the bathroom first?"

"Yeah. Then I'll get dressed and get your things from your car."

"Sounds like a plan." I say, he kisses me and goes into the bathroom, I look around for a robe or something to wear.

"I'll be back soon." Daniel says, coming out of the bathroom a little damp, but fully dressed.

"I'll try not to destroy the kitchen." I joke as he heads out. I'd been following him to his front door and he smiles at me and leaves. The resounding click of the front door closing behind Daniel seems to echo through the apartment as I realize he's taken my keys and my cell. I take a quick shower, put something on, and go out to the kitchen to see what kind of food Daniel keeps around. I find milk, eggs, orange juice, wheat bread, and a few other condiments. "Typical." I mumble, taking out the eggs, butter and bread. Daniel walks back in the door with my red gym bag as I'm preparing to make the eggs. "Hey." I say, setting the greased frying pan on the stove as I turn to greet him.

"Hey, uh, I hope I got the right bag." Daniel says, setting the bag on the counter.

"Yep. How do you like your eggs?"

"Oh, nothing too complicated."

"Don't be intimidated to try to challenge me." I say teasingly. "You certainly weren't last night." He flushes and smiles, and I laugh.

"All right; scrambled without the yokes."

"No problem." I say, breaking an egg over the sink and separating it. "How's your shoulder?"

"Little stiff, actually. How's your foot?" He says, and I dump the yoke down the sink and put the whites in a bowl, I get another egg and repeat the process.

"It's okay, I'm actually surprised it hasn't bruised." I say, going for another egg as Daniel wraps his arms around me from behind in a tight hug. I look up and back at him smiling and he kisses me. The phone rings and the answering machine picks up while I cook and Daniel drinks coffee.

"Daniel! I don't know _what_ you've been doing all morning, but you need to haul ass and get here! Call me back for the details." Jack's voice says over the answering machine.

"Oh crap." I mutter under my breath. "Better call him back. General Hammond might've moved up the mission."

"Right." He says, making no move for the phone.

"Daniel," I say, putting his eggs on a plate and starting my own scrambled eggs. "C'mon, you call Jack and I'll finish up here. You can tell him honestly that it will take you forty-five minutes for you to get there." I say when he still doesn't go for the phone.

"All right." He says, kissing the top of my head. Daniel calls Jack, apologizes for his - and my - absence blaming it on 'personal reasons', and pours another cup of coffee while I finish making my eggs and bring everything into the dining room. We eat breakfast quickly, then I get dressed. I give Daniel a quick massage to loosen up his shoulder and we head down to the car. We get to the base, through security, and down to the conference room within the forty-five minutes I had said.

"Dr. Jackson, Ms. Tyler, nice of you to join us." General Hammond says, as we walk in.

"Sorry." I say, really thinking that at least we're here.

"Just don't let it happen again." General Hammond says, as Daniel and I take seats across form each other.

"Right, so what's going on?" Daniel says.

"The To'Kra have informed us that Apophis is returning to M-5649 to investigate the death of Ah'dreen, the Gao'uld stationed there." General Hammond says. "Seems we stumbled into Apophis's ore processing plant."

"So we're supposed to destroy the plant?" Sam asks.

"Yes." General Hammond says.

"All right, any ideas how?" Jack asks.

"No." A woman says with a watery voice. She's tall, dark blonde, brown eyes with a nice tan and rounded features wearing a long skirt and a little top, and sandals. "I apologize for my tardiness."

"Quite all right." General Hammond says, as the woman comes in to stand near me.

"We have not met. I am Anise." She says, her voice still watery. "And Frejya." She says, her voice now normal.

"Kelly Alia Tyler." I say, after standing up.

"Well met." Anise says, and we sit down. "It is necessary to destroy the entire compound instead of just the power generator."

"Waitaminute. We're going to blow up the entire compound?" I ask, grinning.

"Yeah. Problem?" Jack says.

"Nope. My dad sets up pyrotechnical stunts for the movies. I used to help him." I say relaxing.

"So you know a thing or two about bombs." Sam says with a smirk.

"Oh yeah." I say, smiling as I remember working on 'The Matrix'. "Enough to know you're going to need a lot of power to destroy that place."

"I'm not lugging around a bomb through that forest." Jack says, and everyone goes silent.

"Well, this is probably rather off the wall, but how 'bout plastique?" I say, a few minutes later.

"Doesn't pack much of a punch." Sam says.

"True, but it's easy to carry. That's why I was considering more than one, and maybe not just plastique." I say, thinking about precisely what I can add to a plastique to give it an extra kick.

"What else could you add?" Daniel asks.

"The combinations are endless. Adding some extra kerosene to the mix seemed to work best." I say.

"Weren't you going for _visual_ effect, though?" Jack asks.

"No, not always." I say. "Well over half the time we were really blowing things up."

"Cool." Sam says.

"So you think you can blow this up easily?" General Hammond asks.

"Depends on what I'm blowing up." I say.

"What do you mean?" Anise asks.

"Well, do the Gao'uld use cement or granite or what? I'd hate to get in there and have a bomb that would barely chip the paint." I say.

"Usually we would use C-4, but we would need quite a few of those." Sam says.

"Plastique will work, though." Jack says.

"Good." I say.

"All right. Dismissed." General Hammond says, we all get up from the table as he leaves the room.

"Hey, Kel', can you help me with something?" Sam asks, walking up beside me in the corridor.

"Depends. What's up?" I say, hitting the elevator button.

"You didn't come back last night."

"Ah." I say, immediately getting it. "So?" We get on the elevator as the doors open.

"So! What happened?"

"We had dinner, a little wine, and went back to his place." I say as Sam presses a button.

"Oh?" She asks, smiling, like my little sister Deanna used to when I talked with her about guys. "I have a feeling you didn't sleep on the couch."

"Why do you say that?"

"Are you denying it?"

"No, but I'm not confirming it either. I'm just curious."

"Oh, well, I hate to mention it, but I think he bit you."

"What! Where?" I say, laughing.

"There." Samantha says, brushing a spot on my shoulder, near my neck, with a finger. "Never really pegged Daniel as a biter."

"Guess I'll just have to cover it up." I say, with a shrug as the doors open in front of us.

"Things got a little wild last night, then?" Samantha asks, as we are walking down the corridor.

"No, not really." I say, opening my door and going into my quarters. "Is that all you wanted? To see if Daniel and I got drunk and slept together?" I ask, keeping my voice - and my amusement - in control.

"Well, no, but it's the thing I wanted out of the way first." Sam says, as I get a shirt and a pair of cargo pants out of the dresser.

"I see." I say, looking around for socks. "Do you mind if I just change in the bathroom?"

"Oh, okay." Sam says, and I go into the bathroom, leaving the door open a crack. "So did you?"

"Get drunk, no. I'm not confirming or denying that we had sex, though."

"All right. So which sister _did_ you let in on your love life?"

"Really, none of them. Juliette is four years younger, and she's the oldest of my younger sisters. My older sister was never really any fun. Besides, I usually had an easier time of being friends with guys anyway."

"So who did you talk about guys with?"

"My best friend's sister."

"Why not your best friend?" Samantha asks, as I give up on finding any better socks than the ones I am wearing and put on my good boots.

"Because what's the fun in talking to a guy about a guy?" I say.

"Oh." Sam says. "You should really wear the combat boots."

"No. I get better traction in these."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Good to go." I say, as Sam and I leave my room. "What else is there?"

"Well, I wanted you to help me set up the plastique."

"All right." I say, and Sam leads me to another area of weapons storage. Halfway through picking up what we'd need, I realize that I left something in my quarters. I tell Sam that I'll be right back and bolt back to my quarters to strap on my knife. I return just as quickly and we finish picking up what we'll need for the plastique. We set everything up in the labs so that we just have to place it, activate it, and go. Samantha and I go to the cafeteria for a quick coffee and meet up with Jack and Daniel.

"Hey." I say, warmly, as Sam and I sit down across from them.

"Good to go?"

"Yeah, everything's set." Sam says.

"Great." Jack says. "Are we gonna need padded suitcases?"

"Uh, no sir." Sam says.

"Great. Daniel, I suggest you get to your translations sometime before we leave." Jack says as he gets up from the table.

"Translations?" I ask.

"Yeah, I took a few shots of some control panels before I was caught." Daniel says.

"Want help?" I ask.

"Sure." Daniel says.

"All right. I'll see you two later." Samantha says, getting up from the table.

"Yeah." Daniel says. "Listen, about last night, I really don't think we should advertise the… depth, of our relationship, at least, not at work."

"Shoulda thought of that before you bit me. I didn't notice until Sam pointed it out."

"Didn't you ask me to?"

"Evidently. Don't worry about it, my dad taught me three things; how to blow up a car, jump off a building, and to cover up what I create."

"What does that mean?"

"I can make it appear as if you have a bruise, and I can cover up a real one." I say, finishing off my coffee. "Now, 'bout those translations."

"Yeah, they're back in my office." He says, and I nod. "Shall we?" He stands and I look him in the eyes, trying to see how much he wants to hide.

"Indeed." I say, standing. Daniel leads me out of the cafeteria to his office. "Do you spend a lot of time here?"

"Yeah." Daniel says, searching through a stack of photos. "Why?"

"I just figured out why your place is so neat." I say, looking around at the stacks of books, papers, and photos all askew.

"Oh, uh… all right. Take a look at this." He says, handing me a photo.

"Alright, what am I looking at?" I ask, looking over the photo of some control panel.

"Control mechanisms for a set of doors. Can you read it?"

"Of course, but now it makes sense." I say, glancing up and smiling at the surprise on his face. "Look, 'open', 'lock', 'unlock', it makes almost no sense until you know it's attached to a door, but what's so hard about reading the panel, anyway?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see if you could read it." He says, handing me a few more. "Where did I bite you?"

"Now that I think about it, against the doorframe,during that second round..." I say, looking up from the photos only when he went quiet. "Oh, uh, you meant… oh. Um - on my shoulder. Near my neck." I say, all the blood draining from my face when I see his expression and returning as I flush. "One hell of a night." I say with a chuckle.

That's when we hear the pen drop.

We both turn towards the door to see Dr. Janet Fraiser picking her pen up off of the floor. Neither of us can believe our eyes as we both try to figure out what to stammer out to explain to the good doctor.

"You're both civilians, off base, and it's none of my business. I'll just pretend I never heard that." Dr. Fraiser says, putting me at ease.

"Thank you." I say, breathing again.

"I'll see you later." Dr. Fraiser says, walking away, I nod and look to Daniel.

"Daniel? You okay?" I ask, walking across the room to touch his arm.

"What?" Daniel asks, as if he just woke up.

"Are you all right? You seemed to zone out."

"Oh, I'm fine. Uh… Dr. Fraiser wasn't just in here was she?"

"Sorry love, she was." I say, holding his arm. "Hey, look! Work!" I say, trying to distract him as I see he's about to wigg out.

"Right, uh…" He mumbles as I hand him what he had been looking at. "Can you make any sense of this?"

"Yes." I say, slowly. "'Weapons, West Parameter. Ground'."

"Thanks." Daniel says, starting to turn away.

"What's wrong?" I ask, my voice carefully neutral. "The truth." I say sternly, seeing that he's about to deny the problem. "Please?" I say more softly.

"I'm just not used to having half the base following my love life as if it were a soap opera." Daniel says.

"Half the base?" I ask, and he nods in response. "Well, at least we're the most popular show." I mutter.

"What! Alia…"

"Daniel! I say, mocking his tone. "I sincerely doubt its half the base. I'll give you ten people - maybe, but even if half the base _did_ know, I doubt they'd care." I say softly.

"Really?"

"Yep."

"How are you so sure?"

"Big family?" I say with a shrug. "ER faculty socialization might have something to do with it as well, since I can honestly say I've heard worse."

"What's worse?"

"Once one of my superiors got caught while his wife was giving him oral in the men's room."

"What!"

"His hand was on the emergency alarm. Three nurses, his best friend, and I all went running in there."

"You're serious?"

"Yuh-huh." I say smiling and nodding. "Another time a resident and a med student got caught making out in radiology because she bit him and her sweater was inside out."

"Wow. Anyone get caught anywhere public?"

"I don't think so." I say, recalling my little encounter. "We had a pediatrician and a head nurse who were living together, though. They got really wild sometimes but never in the hospital."

"Okay, you made your point." Daniel says, as I look over the pictures he hands me.

"I haven't even started on the stuff that went on at the law firm I worked at, or the LA ER, the Boston high school… should I continue?" I say, smiling as he laughs.

"That's all right." Daniel says.

"Hey, what's that?" I ask, pointing at a reflection in a panel in the picture.

"That would be… about to shoot me." Daniel says, looking where I'm pointing.

"Whoever it is, is in the way." I say.

"Work around it." He says, thoughtfully. "Alia, how can you read this so easily?"

"I'm not sure. It vaguely reminds me of ancient Egyptian, so I just started mixing things up in my mind until it made sense just you try to get me to read straight modern Egyptian right now, though. Am I getting it wrong?"

"No. I was just curious because you got it so much quicker than I did."

"Oh, all right." I say.

"Drop everything." Jack says, coming into the room, and Daniel put our photos down. "Let's go."

"Are we going to develop a strategy on the way?" I ask, as Daniel and I meet up with Sam in the hall and the three of us follow Jack to the elevator.

"Not this time Kelly." Jack says, as we approach the elevator and Jack pushes the button. "We all learned last time precisely how well you follow orders."

"Not 'all'." Daniel says, looking to me. "What exactly _happened_ while I was out?"

"No clue." Jack says.

"All I know is Kelly got mad." Sam says, as Daniel looked to her.

"I got mad, attempted to keep my temper in check, tried to simply stall until someone could get you out, failed, killed the guy shooting at me." I say, mildly uncomfortable, when he looked to me.

"Oh." Daniel says.

"You actually tried?" Sam asks.

"Well, yeah. I think I intended to go in and rip his throat out. Instead I let him shoot at me for a little bit." I say.

"Then you cut his head off." Jack says, sarcastically.

"You - did?" Daniel asks.

"Yeah." I say, quietly, showing my lack of pride and lack of shame. The elevator doors open on our level and we all get off.

"We need to talk." Daniel whispers as we take up the rear.

"Now?" I whisper to him.

"No, just soon."

"All right. First opportunity?" I whisper, and he nods as we enter the 'gate room.

All the alarms were already going off as we picked up our packs. We checked them over and I noticed that Sam and I didn't have any of the plastique, only C-4.

"Hey, someone does have the plastique, right?" I ask.

"Yeah." Jack says, strapping on his pack. "Teal'c and Daniel will be setting it up."

"All right." I say, zipping up my jacket before putting on my pack.

"Problem Kelly?" Sam asks.

"No, not at all." I say, mildly surprised.

"Chevron seven, engaged." A man's voice says.

"See you on the other side." Jack says, walking through the now fully active 'gate alongside Daniel and Teal'c.

"Tylers don't die nicely." I mumble to myself, before stepping through the 'gate with Sam.

Stepping through the other end of the 'gate for the second time was much the same as the first time - only colder.

"Are you okay?" Daniel asks, a little while later, as the five of us are traipsing through the woods.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just can't wait till Christmas." I say softly.

"Why?" Daniel asks.

"For the past five years, my mom's given me a trip to somewhere warm." I say softly.

"Cold?" Daniel asks.

"Yeah, but don't take off your jacket." I say.

"Okay. I don't think I could anyway." Daniel says, and I smile a little. He drops his arm around my shoulders, draws my a little closer, and I wrap an arm around his waist.

"Odd question," I chirp softly, a little while later.

"Go ahead." Daniel says.

"Do you mind if I occasionally call you Dan?" I ask quietly.

"No, not really…" Daniel says, slowly.

"Warned you it was a weird question." I say softly.

A while later we have to turn on our flashlights, and a little while after that we decide to set up camp. This time, Samantha and I are sent out for wood since we already have food.

"So what's the deal with you and Daniel?" Sam asks a little bit later.

"What do you mean?" I ask in return.

"Well, it's obvious that you're together, but he seems to be, I don't know…"

"Drifting? I noticed. I'm not sure what is going on with him, though."

"Are you worried?"

"I'm not sure. Should I be?"

"No…"

"Good. I don't worry well." I say.

"Think we have enough?" Sam asks, hefting her little bundle of wood.

"Yeah, let's go." I say and we easily make our way back to camp.

"Run into Dalarek?" Jack asks, as Sam and I walk back into camp.

"No, why?" Sam says, as I set up the fire pit.

"We did." Daniel says, pointing to an arrow in a tree.

"Did he send another note?" Sam asks, as I light the fire.

"No." Daniel says.

"He shot at me." Jack says dejectedly.

"Why?" I ask, sitting down beside Daniel, near the fire.

"I don't know. Target practice, maybe?" Jack says, sarcastically.

"No. There would be a real reason. Like his people think we are some sort of threat." I say easily. "Don't ask me 'why' or 'how' because I don't know."

"Okay." Sam says, sitting to my other side.

"Woah. Something Tyler doesn't know. I'm scared." Jack says.

"I never claimed to know everything…" I say surprised at his assumption. "I just keep my mouth shut when I don't know something."

"Makes sense." Sam says.

"Okay that's it. You three try to stick together. Teal'c and I can take care of ourselves." Jack says, annoyed.

"All right." Sam says. "How are we getting in without tipping them off?"

"You, Daniel, and Kelly are just going to have to figure out the guards." Jack says.

"All right, so what's food?" I say.

"Rations." Sam tells me. I look at her as if she had just suggested haggis so she reaches into my pack and pulls out something wrapped in plastic that looks like an oatmeal cookie. I shrug and take what she hands me.

We eat our rations and get some sleep, having got a note from Dalarek during 'dinner'. We wake up with some sort of blue, glittery dust all over us. Sam collects a sample to analyze later, but otherwise we just shake it off and get a move on. Everyone agrees to stop and eat when Jack's whistling 'Pop Goes the Weasel' gets unbearably irritating.


	7. Chapter 7

"If the quiet is really making you that crazy, you could ask Kelly to sing something." Daniel tells Jack, after everyone's done eating.

"You've heard her sing?" Sam asks, shoving the wrapper into her pocket.

"She sings?" Jack asks Daniel, not exactly sounding thrilled.

"Yeah." I say, putting the wrapper for my lunch into the same pocket as the wrapper from dinner.

"Let's go." Jack says, and we all start walking.

"Do you know any decent traveling music?" Sam asks.

"Some, but I'd kinda like to know what you consider 'traveling music'." I say.

"How 'bout something of your own?" Jack asks.

"I'm not a writer." I say, smiling. "But I do know this one song by 'Allison Krauss' called 'Broadway'. It just popped into my head."

"Go for it." Sam says.

"Fine with me." Jack says.

The entire rest of the way to the ridge near the base I sing 'Broadway' and 'Seven Nation Army' by the White Stripes among others. Once at the ridge, Sam and I are ordered to distract the guards so that Jack, Teal'c and Daniel can get in easily.

"Just do it like last time." Jack says as we start to head out.

"Right..." Sam says, and we walk away.

"We fought the guards last time." I say.

"I know."

"So how precisely are we supposed to distract"

"Men?"

"Oh. Normal guys this time, eh?" I say, thoughtfully as we approach the front gates.

"Well, I don't know about normal, but they're still men."

"All right, then we'll be fine. Mind if I take the lead?"

"Go right ahead." Samantha says, falling a step behind me just before we come within shooting range. I lead her straight through the gates and the guards cross their weapons in front of me. I glance at each of them, look back at Sam, and jump high over their weapons. They take and hold aim at me so naturally I take a step back so that when they shoot, the hit each other, not me. They fire at the same time and they both go down. "Nice trick."

"Did that for a movie, didn't think it would actually work in reality, though." I say, as the guys join us.

"Most people need wires and stuff to do that." Jack says, and Daniel and I fall in step beside each other.

"True." I say, as Daniel grabs my hand.

"I thought we were supposed to distract the guards, not kill them." Sam says to me.

"Yeah, I know, but distracting Jaffa seemed to be more difficult." I say. "If I had my way, the guards would've been drunken slobs that wouldn't notice if an entire bloody army had marched through."

"Okay." Jack says.

"Did anyone else hear that?" I ask quietly, a little while later as we're walking down a hallway.

"No." Daniel says, after I stop walking.

"What did you hear?" Sam asks, as everyone else stops walking.

"Some sort of electronic beeping. No one else heard it?" I say.

"No…" Jack says.

"Might be some sort of alarm." Sam says, turning to me. "Do you still hear it?"

"No. Now it's more of a whine." I say, listening hard. "I'm gonna suggest we take cover, and quickly."

"You heard the girl, move!" Jack cries and we all get out of the middle of the corridor just before six Jaffa come around the corner. They say some things in some language other than English and leave.

"Good call, Kelly." Sam says, as we all walk back into the hallway.

"Thanks." I say, glancing around.

"Let's go." Jack says.

"How did you hear that?" Daniel asks me quietly a little while later.

"I was listening for it, sort of." I say just as quietly.

"Are you still listening for it?" Daniel asks.

"Kind of." I say. "What's wrong."

"Do you want me to be quiet?" Daniel asks.

"I do." Jack says. We all hear a cry from behind and the charge of a weapon. "For the love of…" He mutters as we all slowly turn around. The three Jaffa soldiers aiming charged weapons at us say something else and then two of them come towards Daniel and I.

"You all want to move in about two seconds." I say quickly as the Jaffa - who had started out at the opposite end of the corridor and were not moving quickly - came closer. "Now!" I cry as the Jaffa come within range.

Sam and Jack duck behind pillars at my signal, but Daniel hesitates and Teal'c refuses. I take three seconds to shove Daniel out of the way, leap up, and kick each of the soldiers in the head on my descent. I land and grab a staff weapon from one of the now unconscious soldiers and rush the last one standing as he shoots at me. He misses Teal'c and re-aims at me, but I'm too close. I slam one end of the staff into his exposed head and chuck the staff down another hall towards an approaching soldier, hitting him in the center of his chest hard enough to shatter his breastbone and send a shard of bone through his aortic valve. I turn around and run back to Daniel, Sam, Jack and Teal'c.

"You all right? I didn't mean to push you into that wall. I'm sorry." I say softly to Daniel.

"Yeah, I think so." Daniel says, as we all come into the middle of the hallway.

"Everyone else okay?" I ask, turning slightly from Daniel.

"Yes." Sam says.

"The Gao'uld staff weapon was not built for that use." Teal'c says.

"Oh, well, tough luck. Worked well enough." I say. "We should move now."

"Right. Let's." Jack says, and we continue down the corridor. A little while later we plant one bomb out of sight and about half an hour later we plant another on another side of the building. On our way to plant the third plastique, we run into some more Jaffa soldiers who seem to know who I am. I dispatch them with no trouble at all, but twist my ankle further bolting in a different direction. I don't let it slow me down as we plant the rest of the plastique in two more locations and head off to the room previously occupied by Ah'dreen to plant the C-4.

"Are you all right?" Daniel asks me quietly, as we get closer to our destination, noticing the slight limp I'm gaining.

"Yeah, I just landed oddly after that last fight." I say just as quietly, looking at him. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

"Tylers don't die nicely, right?" Daniel says, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Right." I say, as we all turn a corner to find four guards outside the doors we want through. We scramble back around the corner before they see us. "What in the nine hells is left in that room for them to protect!?" I whisper harshly.

"Apophis?" Jack asks sarcastically.

"That is a realistic assumption O'Neill." Teal'c says softly.

"I was right? Really?" Jack whispers.

"It is a possibility." Teal'c says.

"This is great, but are we gonna go finish up or what?" I say, impatiently.

"Yeah, you wanna lead again?" Sam asks quietly.

"Sure." I say, with a deep breath. "Anyone gonna help me out this time?"

"Think you'll need it?" Jack asks.

"Might. Four in armor, against one in nothing." I say.

"Okay." Jack says. "Kelly leads, we'll watch your back." I nod and glance at Daniel, who looks worried. "Let's go."

I stroll around the corner ahead of everyone else looking for all the world like I was just going for a walk in a garden, not walking right into a fight. The two nearest guards aim their weapons at me and I rush them. I leap up into the air and take out one guard with a roundhouse kick - in midair - and stun another in the same move. The other two guards have now drawn other weapons, which prompts me to draw my knife, I resist the urge and focus on the guy I've just stunned. A kick to the guard's face shatters his nose and a swift uppercut to his nose finishes the job. I hear gunfire and jump - literally - ten feet in the air just as I was starting to shift my weight to launch myself at the other two guards. I land and look around me. All four guards are down and Jack, Teal'c, Sam and Daniel are walking towards me.

"Okay, what was that?" Sam asks.

"What did you expect? I wasn't expecting gunfire just then." I say.

"Sorry." Daniel says, and I look at him quizzically. "I fired first."

"Oh." I say. "It's alright. Not bad timing, by my guess."

"Can we - ?" Jack asks.

"Oh, of course." I say. We all burst into the room and look around, Jack and Teal'c leading with weapons drawn.

"Empty." Sam says, after a preliminary search. "Well, not 'empty', but nothing of importance."

"A trap." I groan, ninety-eight percent sure of myself.

"A _what_?" Jack says, turning towards me.

"Three, two, one…" I mutter slowly to myself, as I turn to watch the doors, which close and lock right on cue. "I hate this part of the movie."

"Kelly, what are you talking about?" Sam asks, as I start inspecting the room. "I've already done that, remember."

"First clue was nothing important in a guarded room. Second was the door closing. I've done his half a billion times in the movies, now I figure we've either got ten seconds before some sort of death trap kicks in, or five seconds before some automated message kicks in telling us that we'll be dead in ten seconds. One way or the other it doesn't matter, we gotta get the bloody hell out of here." I say, keeping my eyes on the ceiling.

"You wouldn't happen to be claustrophobic, are you?" Jack asks, watching me.

"Nope, just not quite ready to consider dying." I say.

"Found the rings." Daniel calls from across the room.

"Rings?" I mumble.

"Charges?" Sam asks Jack, as he and Teal'c go to stand near Daniel.

"Sure." Jack says, as I walk closer to everyone else.

"How are rings gonna help?" I ask Daniel, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Kelly has a point, Daniel Jackson. Rings will only take us into Apophis's ship if it has arrived yet." Teal'c says.

"Well the only other way out is the door." Jack says. He stops as if something has just come to him and turns to me. "Any chance you could open those doors, Tyler?"

"Well, uh, nothing's impossible. I'll take a look." I say, I look over the doors, kick it once here the doors meet with my most powerful kick, land, and continue to look at the doors, which are still locked. I go over to the panel that seems to control the locks, act on a hunch by punching a few buttons. Nothing happens, so I unzip my left boot.

"What are you doing now, Tyler?" Jack asks me as I take out my electronic lock-pick kit.

"Is that what you're calling me now?" I ask Jack, starting to really work on the locks.

"Think so." Jack says.

"All right, just curious. I'm trying to deactivate the lock." I say.

"Charge is set." Sam says.

"Everyone over this place?" I ask a few minutes later.

"Think so." Sam says.

"Yep." Daniel says, walking back over to me.

"Good. 'Cause we can leave now." I say a second before I open the doors.

"Let's go!" Jack says, and we all bolt out of the room and down the corridor towards the entrance.

We get out and to the edge of the forest in seemingly no time. Sam and I detonate the bombs and we continue on to the Stargate. Daniel dials us up, the 'gate activates and we all go home.

"Ms. Tyler, can I see you for a minute in my office?" General Hammond says a little while after we get back to the base. "Welcome back team."

"All right." I say, unsure, throwing Daniel a worried, curious look that he catches, before General Hammond leads me off. "What's this about?" I ask, once the door to his office is closed behind me.

"I didn't bring you in for the SG team alone. I have an actual mission for you."

"Okay, I have three questions: What's the estimated length of this mission?"

"A month, two at most."

"Will I be able to return to SG-1?" I ask. "If I so choose, and if they'll have me, of course."

"If you ever want to return you of course can."

"All right, so what's this mission about?" I ask.

General Hammond explains it's a diplomatic mission to Russia to get a better grasp on what they're doing over there and how we can benefit equally from mutual cooperation regarding the Stargate. I find out why me in particular, stare at a pen for five minutes deciding whether or not to take the mission, and try to make up my mind. I ask if I can have some time to think, which he grants. I leave General Hammond's office and somehow wind up in the doorway of Daniel's office.

"Oh, hey." Daniel says, after turning to put a book away.

"General Hammond asked me to take a mission in Russia." I say quietly.

"Oh?" Daniel says, looking completely broadsided and a little hurt.

"Um, did you take it?"

"Getting anywhere with that today?" I say, dreading the moment I have to tell him I'm leaving.

"Come in." Daniel says, I come in and he closes the door behind me. "Alia what did you say?"

"Daniel, I - " I say, hugging myself as I take a big breath. "I haven't said anything yet."

"Oh." Daniel says, seeming to break.

"Dan, I thought you should be the first to know." I say, as we look into each other's eyes. I hug him, pressing my forehead into his shoulder, as my mind realizes that his eyes are full of tears. "No tears, love. You cry and that'll get me going."

"All right."

"Besides, I'd like you to take care of my car while I'm out of the country if I leave, so it's not like I won't be back."

"I'll take well care of it." Daniel says, holding me. "Will you write?"

"As often as possible. I'll call and email as well, but if I'm not back in two months don't be surprised."

"Why's that?"

"I'm considering going back to medical school."

"Oh."

"Don't worry. I don't know where yet." I say. I kiss him passionately and look into his eyes. "I'm leaving in two days if I go at all. I also persuaded Hammond to give SG-1 those two days off, claiming that everyone took a real beating on that last mission."

"All right. What are you thinking about doing?"

"I don't know, maybe do the hang out and not get Jack pissed off at me thing, maybe do the bar-b-que thing, whatever people can agree on."

"Where could we have a bar-b-que?"

"I could find a park or something. The food wouldn't be a problem, I grill well."

"It's up to you what you want to do with your send off." Daniel says, with a heavy sigh.

"I will be back. I promise." I say, heading for the door. I go back to my room, lock my door and take a quick shower before changing into a different business suit and starting to pack. I get everything packed up long before Sam comes to see me.

"Daniel told me you might be going to Russia."

"Yeah. General Hammond asked me to go on a diplomatic mission, so I'm taking advantage of it."

"To do what?" Samantha asks incredulously.

"To take care of my sister." I say. "I don't want to get into it."

"Well, you don't seem pleased to go."

"Samantha, no offense, but in the words of Armedia Tyler 'duh'." I say, getting upset. "I don't really want to go to _Russia_." I say softly, calming down.

"Then why go?" Sam asks.

"Because I…" I say, exasperated. "I might have a sister in some very serious trouble."

"Oh, and she's there."

"Yeah, but hey, I'll be back." I say with a sigh, "but in the mean time, you wanna go drivin'?"

"How's that special?"

"I drive a Viper."

"Oh… sure, let's see if I can get some time off."

"I've already got sometime off for you guys." I say, playing with my keys.

"Oh cool. Jack's gonna appreciate that."

"Yeah, I was thinking we could just, like, go bar-b-que or something. I'm just not used to being alone right before I leave the country, or a job, or anything."

"Sounds like fun. When's that?"

"Probably day after tomorrow." I say, thinking over what I've already shoved in a suitcase.

"Oh, okay, I'll ride with you for the thing, then." Sam says.

"Okay, that'll be fun. It's always kind of fun to get lost with people." I say, closing both suitcases. "I think I'm going to go find Daniel again. Gimme your phone number, though, so that I can get a hold of you when I figure out what I'm doing with the bar-b-que." She writes down her phone number for me, and I go shove my suitcases in the car before going to grab Daniel in the cafeteria.

"Hey, Tyler, did you talk to Hammond about some r&r time for us before you leave?" Jack asks, as I walk in and towards the table that he's sitting at with Daniel and Teal'c.

"Yeah, it just feels wrong if I get on a plane without some sort of sendoff party. Besides, I think that it'd be nice if when I came back we were all friendly towards each other. You in?" I say, sitting down next to Daniel.

"Sure, do I have to pay for anything?" Jack asks.

"Nothing except maybe gas to get places. It's warm enough now that I was thinking about doing the bar-b-que thing." I say, grabbing Daniel's hand under the table.

"Do you have a particular place in mind to do this?" Teal'c asks me.

"Actually, my sister has a pretty big house not far from here. It's kind of a drive, but worth it if we don't have to worry about the public." I say, taking into consideration that Teal'c probably doesn't walk around in public with that gold tattoo in plain sight.

"And your sister wouldn't be there?" Jack asks.

"No, she's usually in New York with my Dad, but she was out here for a little while."

"Cool." Jack says.

"Yeah, wait till you see the house." I say, smiling as Daniel starts to rub my hand.

"Well, I think that I'm going to go catch up on some translations. Take it easy for a little while." Daniel says, scooting back from the table.

"I'll have Sam get a hold of you when we figure out what's what. I'm gonna go with him for now." I say, following Daniel as he leaves.

"You don't have to come and help me work, you know." Daniel says a minute later, on the elevator.

"Yeah, but you don't have to work either." I say, smiling a little, as he looks at me with an eyebrow arched.

"What where you thinking?" Daniel asks.

"I was thinking, you, me, my car, your apartment... I have to stop by a grocery store on the way to your apartment, but there are ways to make that fun…" I say mischievously.

"Hm, I think we could do that." Daniel says, hitting another button.

"Cool." I say, as he slips an arm around me.


	8. Chapter 8

A little while later, after grabbing some stuff for the bar-b-que, hauling four rather heavy bags of groceries up to his apartment, and shoving food in the refrigerator and cabinets, we settle in to figure out what to do with our free time.

"I suppose I should at least check my email, see if anything really important comes up." I say, as we sit against each other on the couch, and he plays with my hand.

"People send important email?" Daniel asks quietly.

"Yeah, these days I get all kinds of stuff. Wedding invitations, Christmas cards, job offers, so on and so forth."

"All I've ever got is spam mail."

"Well, that'll change." I say, sighing a bit. "Are you getting hungry?"

"Yeah, what do you want to do for dinner?" Daniel asks, considering options.

"Don't know… How does Chinese sound?"

"Sounds like a plan." He says, while I get up and log on my AOL account to check through my email. "I'll call in a little while." Daniel says, drawing up a chair behind me so that he can read over my shoulder. "You don't mind, do you?"

"I'm good with that." I say, setting aside a bunch of my puzzles of the day for later, when I don't have people reading over my shoulder.

"Very eclectic tastes." He mutters, as I get on my favorite set of message boards.

"Yeah, but what's the fun of being online if you can't broaden your horizons?" I ask, checking over one of my community threads.

"Good online philosophy."

"Oh, don't talk to me about philosophy, there's an entire chat room committed to philosophers. What loons those people are."

"You're a chat room girl?"

"Hey, at least I'm not a porn site perv."

"Neither am I."

"I know, you're probably the sort that just researches things all day, a Google guy. No quizzes or anything fun like that."

"Hey, I amuse myself online." He says, as I log into the shy chat room. "What are you…"

"Just getting further opinions…" I say, as I greet the room. I hit the ignore button on the guy who's just drawing disturbing pictures and ask the rest of the room about the different types of online people. A couple of people agree with me that a quizzy chatish board girl would drive a non-fiction reader guy nuts, and that constantly reading non-fiction isn't entertaining yourself unless you occasionally interrupt the non-fiction with a jigsaw puzzle or a crazy-person message board or something. The rest of the room mostly agrees with each other that I should distract him from his non-fiction and bang him immediately, which gets us both laughing as two of the other chatters start to act out what they think we should be doing. I extract myself from the chat room, check the guest-book on my site and the message board attached to it, log off and shut down the computer.

"So, what did you think of that?" I ask, as I go into the kitchen for something to drink, and unfortunately finding nothing I want right now.

"That was…" He says, drifting off. "How did you get your own website?"

"Ah, it's just a piece of crap I do for fun, doesn't seem to be very popular. Of course, that could be because I suck at advertising, but I just decided I could write a website one day, and so I went searching for a free site builder."

"How do you suck at advertising? That seems to be a really neat site."

"Nah, I just hate being all, like, 'please, pay attention to me! I'll put anything up to get people to look at my site and not trash it, just take a look!'" I say, doing my comic impression of a loser chick begging for approval.

"Yeah, that kind of makes sense." Daniel says, smiling as he laughs a little. "Do you get that kind of thing often in the chat rooms?"

"Nah, but plenty of people break in to perfectly interesting conversations just to advertise their smutty pictures, and I don't want to join those ranks."

"Understandable. What about the other thing?" He says.

"Only sort of. I get quite a few guys trying to cyber with me, so I just go all serial killer on 'em and they back right off. The shy regs are usually pretty good for advice, though, if you can get 'em to pay attention."

"That must be one of those good things about the Internet." He says, going for the phone.

"Getting and giving free advice from people who openly admit that they don't know everything about every situation having to do with everyone? Yeah." I say, as he calls some oriental eatery.

"So what else have those people advised you on?" He asks, hanging up his phone.

"Oh, little of this, little of that." I say, recalling some of the fun conversations I'd had with the people in the shy chat rooms and smiling.

"Do I even want to ask?" He asks, a little half smile on his face.

"Depends on how you're feeling." I say, leaning back against the counter.

"Um, I'm fine, why?" He says uncertainly, and I go back over to him and straddle him as I sit on his lap.

"'Cause it's not the kind of thing you _tell_ a guy." I purr, as I take off my boots.

"Well, we do have a few minutes before the food gets here." Daniel mutters, making no move to stop me as I move to take off his belt.

"That's a really good piece of advice." Daniel breathes, a little while later, just after we roll apart.

"You're telling me." I say, my accent having returned rather thickly during. "I'll be back." I say a moment or two later, as I get up to go to the bathroom. I grab one of Daniel's shirts, only buttoning a few of the middle buttons, as Daniel relaxes on the bed, and someone knocks at the door before I can get out of the bedroom.

"That'd be the food." He says, moving to get out of bed really slowly.

"I'll get it." I say, grabbing the wallet out of my pants. I head for the door as I take out the cash for the food, not really concerned about how I'm not really dressed since all the major areas are covered well. The knock starts again as I open the door. "He - " I say, not expecting to find Jack, Sam and Teal'c standing there, which is precisely what I find. "Oh, crap."

"Nice way to answer a door." Sam says sarcastically.

"Could be worse, I could've come to the door completely nude. Come in, I'll go… do… things." I say, standing back from the door to let them all in.

"Brought movies." Jack says, holding up a Hollywood Video bag.

"Cool, be right back." I say, heading back to the bedroom, where I find Daniel dozing off. "Hey babe,"

"No food?" He asks, as I find my jeans and pull them on, shoving the money in my front pocket.

"No food, just the guys." I say, searching for my bra. "Get up." I laugh, as he tries to bury his head under a few pillows.

"Who are the guys?" He asks, as it hits him and he lifts a couple of the pillows from his face.

"_Your_ guys, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c. Now, come on." I say, finding my bra twisted up with my top. I untangle them and put them on as Daniel sits bolt upright in bed. "I'm not kidding." I say softly, tossing a pair of his pants at him.

He gets dressed quickly and I straighten up my hair as much as possible in a few minutes, and we go back out to find the guys all making themselves comfortable around the living room. "Hey, guys." Daniel says, apparently in shock.

"Hey, nice door service." Jack says to Daniel, as I fall into a free chair.

"Ha ha, thanks much. What's up?" I say, seeing that Daniel's in no fit state to say things at the moment.

"Just thought you guys might be up for a movie or two." Sam says, smirking.

"We have Star Wars." Teal'c says, smiling.

"Not bad. Anything newer?" I say, nodding.

"Not really. Sam picked up Practical Magic, and I thought you said you worked on The Crow, so we picked that up, too." Jack says

"Yeah, I worked on that. Not a lot, but just enough to say I knew Brandon." I say reflectively.

"Cool." Sam says.

"However, we just ordered food, so now you get to have the fun of figuring out how you want to change your plans." I say, as Daniel starts to come out of his little stupor.

"Japanese. If you guys want in we could order something for you." Daniel says, sliding off of the arm of his couch that he'd been sitting on.

"You sure?" Sam asks, doubtfully.

"Yeah, I can afford it." I say casually. "In the meantime, who's driving?"

"Sam is, why?" Jack says.

"Because who wants a beer?" I say, getting up to go to the kitchen. Jack and Daniel both raise hands, and Jack shoots Daniel a weird, confused look. "Sam, Teal'c, want anything else?"

"What did you pick up?" Sam asks.

"Uh, juice, cola, and root beer." I say, trailing off for until I get into the kitchen.

"Juice is fine." Sam says.

"I would like to try the root beer." Teal'c says.

"All right, be right up." I say, going into the kitchen.

"So what do we watch first?" Jack asks, a few minutes later as I hand people their drinks and sit down to my own.

"I'm sayin' we start with the oldest and work our way new." I suggest evenly, opening my stronger than beer.

"When did you pick that up?" Daniel asks, obviously not approving of my choice of drink.

"While you were grabbing things other places,and I grabbed the beer." I say, seeing the fight coming and working to diffuse it before it actually happens. "I have no taste for beer."

"Okay…" Daniel says, probably arguing with himself over what he should be saying or doing in response.

"So, does anyone want to play musical chairs before we put in the movie?" I ask, automatically getting some really odd looks from Jack, Daniel, and Sam.

"No." Jack says, a little snottily.

"So everyone's happy sitting where they are? No one wants to change the angle they're looking at the TV from?" I say, deciding to ignore it.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Daniel says, standing up to move to the end of the couch nearest to me, and the delivery guy knocks on the door.

"Got it." I say, getting up and going for the door, tossing Jack the phone on the way.

"What's this for?" Jack asks, as he picks up the phone that had landed right next to him.

"You guys wanted food, too, right?" I say, opening the door. "Hello."

"Thirty nine, twenty five, please." The delivery guy says, handing me the big bag as I hand him forty-five dollars.

"We just had people arrive unexpectedly, so you might wanna remember your way." I say, taking the little bag.

"You have a nice evening."

"Thanks, you too." I say, closing the door as he walks off. "You guys set?"

"Yeah, should be another half an hour." Jack says, as I set the bags down on a counter. "I just hit redial."

"Good deal." I say, starting to unpack the food. "Actually, Daniel, what do you think about just popping this stuff in the microwave when the rest of he food gets here?"

"That's fine." Daniel says.

"Unnecessary, though." Sam says, subtly elbowing Jack.

"I'm used to the old rule that you don't eat in front of guests, it's one of those things that stuck when I was a kid." I say, re-packing the one dish I had already taken out. "Hey, I uncovered an old pic you guys might be interested in, wanna see it while we're waiting?"

"Sure, why not." Daniel says, sitting up a little straighter as I notice that he'd taken the chair I was sitting in.

"How old?" Sam asks, grinning.

"Only about ten years, not even, probably. It's from one of my birthdays." I say, going into the other room where I had dropped my suitcases. I grab the picture, which I had prudently stashed in an outside pocket of my little suitcase, and go back out to hand it to Jack.

"You have many friends from many movies in this picture." Teal'c says after the pic gets passed to him, handing the picture to Daniel.

"I actually had to argue with the guys to stand next to each other, luckily the rest of the girls were on my side." I say, as my cell phone starts to ring.

"What's that?" Sam asks, obviously finding the inner child in my ring tone.

"Savage Garden. Excuse me a minute?" I say, going into the other room to retrieve the phone.

"Anyone important?" Daniel asks me quietly, as I come back into the room with the phone.

"Just a minute." I mutter, deciding on a course of action, as I push talk. "Hey, you've reached Kelly Tyler, I'm entirely too busy to talk to you, so leave your name and a number and I'll try to call you back, however, if I don't you might as well quit trying." I say and shut off the phone.

"Nice." Jack says somewhere between amused and sarcastic.

"Yeah, that was my sister. She pissed me off a little while ago and I'm not talking to her." I say, setting the phone on the counter. "So, where were we?"

"No where." Jack says.

"Fun place to be, that. Something like a cross between the Bermuda Triangle and the South Pole." I say, getting a laugh out of Sam and Daniel.

"So, Tyler, trust fund baby?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, a little bit. I've always worked at something, though." I say, starting to get just a little annoyed at leaning against the back of the couch.

"Something like what?" Jack asks.

"I've always been able to find a set, or an ER, or a law firm looking for experienced help, of course, when I get bored with something like that, I could always just go do the waitress thing or whatever. Trust money gets shoved at the big stuff."

"You got a house somewhere?" Jack asks, trying to figure out the big stuff all at once.

"A couple, actually. Mostly on a technical basis, I usually stay in my apartments." I say, deciding to go and sit with Daniel. I go and sit on Daniel's lap, ever so slightly catching him off guard, but not enough for him to make me move.

"Is real estate an interest of yours as well?" Sam asks, evidently having been caught off guard as well by my sudden choice of seating.

"Only sort of. I usually wind up building a house, living in it for a little while, and then giving it to someone who could really use the space. I don't think it's quite normal, but people say it's one of my few altruistic ventures so I keep up with it."

"So you get stuck living in cracker box apartments until your next house is built." Daniel remarks, not particularly thrilled with the notion.

"Hardly. My apartments are usually condos in the wrong shape, now furniture shopping, there's a hobby."

"So where's home?" Jack asks.

"Few different places in this country, a couple more around." I say, not particularly thrilled with the direction the conversation is taking. "Home home is Ayr, though. The most beautiful place I've ever seen, and twice as comforting. Didn't spend much time there when I got older, but from what I remember; blue skies, gorgeous blue waters… just being at home was great fun for a five year old."

"Sounds awesome." Sam says, as people knock on the door again.

"Yeah it was." I say, getting up carefully to answer the door. "Hello."

"Forty seven, ninety two." The delivery guy says, handing me the food as I hand him fifty-five.

"Thanks, keep the change." I say, as he starts to walk off counting the cash. "Food's up." I say, starting to unpack the bags, then going over to the earlier bags.

"Finally." Jack mutters getting up from the couch, as Daniel's stomach audibly growls as he follows Jack and Sam.

"Thanks, Kelly. What do we owe you?" Sam says, as Jack finds his food and hands Sam hers.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I've dropped more willingly on people I hate." I say, shoving Daniel's dish into his microwave. "All right, it's official; we've got egg rolls out the ears."

"Sorry, didn't notice you had already ordered some." Jack mutters, taking a fork as I set them out.

"No big, it's just more food to eat." I say, turning to hand people plates. "All right." I mutter under my breath, as Jack digs in to his dish without waiting for the plate Sam winds up taking. People situate themselves at the dining room table; I finish zapping things and join them.


End file.
